Mesaqa'ah

No béchamel and no meat, and it is as good cold as hot — which is the opposite of the dish it shares a name with.

Vegan.

Ingredients

the vegetables

• 3 large aubergines, in thick rounds
• 3 green peppers, in rings
• salt, for drawing the aubergine
• 300 ml sunflower oil, for frying

the sauce

• 6 cloves garlic, sliced
• 4 tablespoons tomato purée
• 600 g chopped tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. NO BÉCHAMEL AND NO MEAT, AND IT IS AS GOOD COLD AS HOT. All three of those are the opposite of the dish this one shares a name with, and together they make it a different object: fried aubergine and pepper layered under a garlicky cumin-spiked tomato sauce, baked until the layers merge, and eaten at room temperature as often as warm. It is a vegetable dish rather than a meat bake, it has no dairy in it at all, and it belongs with the olive-oil dishes that are made in the morning and eaten through the day. Adding a white sauce to it does not improve it; it makes the other dish, badly.
2. THE AUBERGINE IS SALTED FOR HALF AN HOUR AND PATTED DRY. Thick rounds, salted, drained, blotted. It draws out water and a drier aubergine absorbs dramatically less oil -- visible in the pan. Unsalted rounds drink the entire three hundred millilitres and the dish is a sponge.
3. THE AUBERGINE AND PEPPERS ARE FRIED SEPARATELY AND DRAINED ON PAPER. Different times, different pans-full. Peppers blister in three minutes and aubergine wants eight; together, one is raw or the other is black.
4. THE GARLIC IS SLICED AND THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF IT. Six cloves, sliced rather than crushed, fried briefly in the olive oil before the tomato. Sliced garlic stays as soft sweet pieces through the bake and is findable in the finished dish; crushed, it disperses and merely flavours.
5. THE SAUCE IS COOKED DOWN THICK BEFORE IT GOES OVER. Fifteen minutes, until it holds a shape on the spoon. The fried vegetables will release oil and a little liquid in the oven, so a loose sauce ends up as a watery pool under them.
6. IT IS BAKED UNCOVERED AND THEN LEFT TO COOL. Forty minutes at 190°C, then off the heat and left at least an hour. The cooling is a step: the aubergine goes on absorbing the sauce and the whole thing firms into something that can be lifted in squares. Served straight from the oven it is loose and the flavours are separate.
7. CUMIN IS THE SPICE AND IT IS TWO TEASPOONS. Not oregano, not cinnamon. It is what makes this taste Egyptian rather than Greek, and it is assertive enough to read when the dish is cold.
8. The aubergine rounds SALTED and drained 30 MINUTES, then PATTED DRY.
9. The oil heated and the aubergine fried until well browned. Drained on paper.
10. The peppers fried SEPARATELY until blistered. Drained.
11. In a clean pan, the olive oil heated and the SLICED garlic fried 1 MINUTE without browning.
12. The purée fried 2 MINUTES, then the tomatoes, cumin, allspice, sugar and seasoning, and cooked 15 MINUTES until it HOLDS A SHAPE on the spoon.
13. The aubergine and peppers layered in a baking dish and the sauce spooned over.
14. Baked UNCOVERED at 190°C for 40 MINUTES.
15. LEFT TO COOL at least 1 HOUR.
16. TESTED: it should hold together when lifted in a square and taste clearly of cumin and garlic. Watery means the sauce was not reduced enough.
17. Served warm or at room temperature with 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