Kaware'

Cooked until the broth sets to a jelly when a spoonful is cooled, which is the only test that matters.

Not vegetarian — contains trotters, whose animal the source does not name.

Ingredients

the trotters

• 2 kg cow or calf trotters, split
• 4 tablespoons coarse salt
• 4 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 lemons, halved

the broth

• 2 onions, halved
• 10 cloves garlic, whole
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 cardamom pods
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 3 litres water
• salt and black pepper

to finish

• 6 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons ghee
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• juice of 2 lemons
• a handful of parsley, chopped

Method

1. IT IS COOKED UNTIL THE BROTH SETS TO A JELLY WHEN A SPOONFUL IS COOLED, which is the only test that matters. Five or six hours, and the clock is not the measure -- a tablespoon of the broth put on a cold saucer and left five minutes should set firm enough to hold a thumbprint. That jelly is collagen from the trotters converted to gelatine, and it is the entire reason for the dish: the broth becomes thick, glossy and lip-sticking rather than watery, and the meat around the bones turns to something soft and gelatinous. Stopped at three hours the broth is a thin meaty liquid and the trotters are rubbery. There is no shortcut; it is time.
2. THE TROTTERS ARE SCRUBBED, SALTED AND BLANCHED, AND THE BLANCHING WATER IS THROWN AWAY. Scrubbed with a brush, rubbed with coarse salt, soaked an hour in vinegar water with cut lemons, then covered with cold water, brought to the boil, boiled ten minutes, and that water discarded entirely. The scum that comes off is considerable. Skipped, the broth is cloudy and smells strongly, and neither can be fixed later.
3. THEY ARE SPLIT BY THE BUTCHER. Asked for in halves or quarters. Whole trotters will not fit a domestic pan and the marrow and collagen inside cannot get out.
4. IT IS SIMMERED, NEVER BOILED, AND SKIMMED FOR THE FIRST HALF HOUR. A bare tremble. A boil emulsifies the fat into the broth and makes it greasy and permanently cloudy; a simmer gives something clear that sets clean.
5. THE FAT IS LIFTED OFF AFTER CHILLING, NOT SKIMMED HOT. The pot cooled and refrigerated, the set fat lifted off the top in a sheet, and the broth then reheated. Trying to skim six hours of rendered fat while hot is futile and leaves the dish heavy.
6. A GARLIC AND CUMIN TAQLIYA GOES IN AT THE END. Crushed garlic and a tablespoon of cumin fried in ghee for forty seconds and poured into the pot. The long simmer has flattened the aromatics that went in at the start; this puts a sharp top note back.
7. IT IS SERVED WITH A GREAT DEAL OF LEMON. Two lemons' juice in the pot and more at the table. An intensely gelatinous broth needs acid or it is cloying after three spoonfuls.
8. The trotters SCRUBBED, rubbed with the COARSE SALT, and SOAKED 1 HOUR in water with the VINEGAR and halved lemons.
9. Covered with cold water, brought to the boil, BOILED 10 MINUTES, and THAT WATER THROWN AWAY. The pan rinsed.
10. Returned with the 3 litres of water, onions, WHOLE garlic, bay, cinnamon, cardamom and ground cumin.
11. Brought to a BARE TREMBLE and SKIMMED for the first 30 MINUTES.
12. Simmered 5 to 6 HOURS. Never boiled.
13. TESTED: a tablespoon of broth on a COLD SAUCER should SET FIRM in 5 MINUTES. If it does not, it needs longer.
14. Cooled and REFRIGERATED, and the set fat LIFTED OFF in a sheet.
15. Reheated. The ghee heated separately, the crushed garlic and tablespoon of cumin fried 40 SECONDS, and poured in.
16. The lemon juice and parsley added off the heat.
17. Served very hot, with more lemon 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