Egyptian musaqa'a a lucky dip

Today I was completely devoid of inspiration - I suspect it's something that creeps up on me at this time of the year, so I sent David to my bookshelves and he came back with Lugma - Noor Murad's first solo book - which I have raved to you about a while ago in a post I called How to begin a cookbook. So I did my thing and just opened it at random to this rather gorgeous looking eggplant dish which she calls Musaq'a: Aubergines in spicy tomato sauce with fried potatoes - the fried potatoes being "my own little touch". Alas the recipe is not online as yet. Doubtless, eventually somebody will make it and post it online.

Noor Murad is from Bahrain with an English mother and Arab father and the bulk of the food in the book is from that background, but, of course, with her own take on it. Like Ixta Belfrage and Brazil.

This, however, turns out to be an Egyptian dish - a lighter version of the Greek moussaka, as it does not have the béchamel sauce that that dish uses. Apparently according to one of the other bloggers I found who had made this dish - it's most often made with minced meat, and yet, the majority of the recipes I found were vegetarian - even vegan. It's also much more ancient - random fact - the Greek moussaka that we all know and love was invented in the 1920's by a Greek chef called Nikolaos Tselementes. The Arabic version dates back to medieval times they think, and is basically sliced fried aubergines, layered in a casserole, sometimes with minced meat and doused in a spicy tomato sauce. Which is what Noor Murad presents here but with no meat, and topped with those very tempting looking straw potatoes. Although she does say:

"The most important thing is to have some plain rice or fluffy pita bread to eat with - you'll want something to soak up the melty aubergines and spiced sauce."

The name by the way, means chilled or moistened. Chilled I think because it is often kept cool and eaten cold the next day.

Noor roasts her eggplant and also some green peppers - the other traditional Egyptian ingredient. and the tomato sauce is flavoured with cumin, coriander and cinnamon, not to mention the chilli and lots of garlic. Oh and a touch of cider vinegar. And I have to say that these ingredients do recur in the other recipes that I found - even the vinegar: Egyptian musaqa'a - vegan-style aubergines - Maggie's Food; Oven-roasted Egyptian mesaka'a - Mary Fawzy/Food 52; Egyptian moussaka - Fufu's Kitchen (a meat version); Lentil musaqa'a - Aisha Abdel Gawad/Bon Appétit - even more vegan and Egyptian moussaka (Eggplant and beef casserole) - The Mediterranean Dish I believe Claudia Roden also had a version in The Book of Jewish Food, but I cannot find it online.

I confess this is a little brief, but it gives me a chance once again, to urge you to go out and buy the book. There are so many things in this book that I would like to try. Maybe I should make it my first 'new recipe' venture.

YEARS GONE BY

December 11

2024 - The cheese board

2023 - Nothing

2022 - Nothing

2021 - Nothing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Making a nest

2018 - Tea, infusion or tisane?

2017 - Nothing

2016 - Aiming for perfection