Eggah

The egg is there to bind the filling rather than the filling to fill the egg — it is far firmer than an omelette.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (yoghurt).

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• a very large bunch of parsley, chopped
• a large bunch of coriander, chopped
• 2 leeks, finely sliced
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 4 tablespoons ghee or butter
• salt and black pepper

to serve

• yoghurt
• flatbread

Method

1. THE EGG IS THERE TO BIND THE FILLING RATHER THAN THE FILLING TO FILL THE EGG. That inversion is the whole dish. In an omelette, egg is the substance and whatever goes in it is a flavouring; here six eggs are barely enough to hold together an enormous volume of chopped herbs, leek and spring onion, and a slice cut from the finished round is mostly green. It is consequently far firmer than an omelette -- dense, sliceable, good cold, and closer to a vegetable cake set with egg. Make it with a modest handful of herbs and you have made an omelette.
2. THERE IS FLOUR AND BAKING POWDER IN IT, AND THAT IS NOT A MISTAKE. Two tablespoons of flour and half a teaspoon of baking powder. With that much solid matter suspended in so little egg, the mixture needs help to set into something that holds a slice, and the flour does it. The baking powder lifts it very slightly so it is dense rather than leaden.
3. IT IS COOKED SLOWLY AND THICK, NOT FAST AND THIN. A medium-small pan so the mixture sits three or four centimetres deep, over a low heat, fifteen minutes covered before it is turned. An omelette's high heat would brown the outside long before the middle of something this thick had set.
4. IT IS TURNED ONCE, WITH A PLATE. Slid onto a plate, the pan inverted over it, and the whole flipped back in -- or finished under a grill if that is too daunting. Five more minutes on the second side. Stirred or folded like an omelette it simply breaks up.
5. THE LEEKS ARE SOFTENED FIRST AND THE HERBS GO IN RAW. Leeks need ten minutes in the ghee or they are squeaky and raw in the finished round; parsley and coriander go in uncooked, straight into the egg, which keeps them green.
6. IT IS AS GOOD COLD AS HOT AND IS OFTEN BETTER. Cut into wedges once cool, it firms further and the herbs come forward. This is one of the few egg dishes that is improved by sitting, which is why it travels.
7. The leeks softened in half the ghee over a low heat 10 MINUTES. Cooled slightly.
8. The eggs beaten with the flour, baking powder, cumin, salt and pepper until smooth.
9. ALL the chopped parsley and coriander, the spring onions and the softened leeks folded in RAW. The mixture will look like herbs barely held together.
10. The remaining ghee heated in a medium-small heavy pan over a LOW heat.
11. The mixture poured in to sit 3 to 4 cm deep and levelled.
12. Covered and cooked over a LOW heat 15 MINUTES, until set around the edge and almost set in the middle.
13. TURNED with the help of a plate and cooked 5 MINUTES more.
14. TESTED: a cut wedge should hold its shape and be mostly green. If it folds or runs there was too little flour, or it was cooked too fast.
15. Served hot or cold in wedges, with yoghurt and bread.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes