Sabanekh

The spinach goes in raw and finely chopped and cooks down into the tomato until it is a sauce rather than a vegetable.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg spinach, washed and finely chopped
• 500 g stewing beef, in small cubes
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 tablespoons ghee
• 3 tablespoons tomato purée
• 400 g chopped tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• 600 ml water
• a handful of coriander, chopped
• salt and black pepper

to serve

• rice
• lemon wedges

Method

1. THE SPINACH GOES IN RAW AND FINELY CHOPPED AND COOKS DOWN INTO THE TOMATO UNTIL IT IS A SAUCE RATHER THAN A VEGETABLE. Not wilted separately, not squeezed, not added at the end. One point two kilos of it, chopped small, stirred straight into the simmering tomato and beef and cooked for forty minutes until it has lost all structure and become a dark green sauce thick enough to coat rice. That is what the dish is: spinach as the sauce. Added at the end for five minutes it is bright green and recognisable, which is a perfectly good thing to eat and is a different dish.
2. IT IS CHOPPED SMALL BEFORE IT GOES IN. A few millimetres. Whole leaves take much longer to break down and leave ropey strands in the finished sauce.
3. ITS WATER IS PART OF THE DISH AND IS NOT DRAINED OFF. Spinach that volume releases an enormous amount of liquid, and the sauce is built on it -- only six hundred millilitres of water goes in to start, because the spinach provides the rest. Squeezed dry first, the pot needs topping up with water that tastes of nothing.
4. THE BEEF IS BROWNED AND GIVEN A HEAD START. Cubed, browned hard, then simmered an hour before any spinach appears. Stewing beef wants that hour; the spinach wants forty minutes. Added together, either the beef is tough or the spinach has gone past sauce to sludge.
5. THE TOMATO PURÉE IS FRIED UNTIL IT DARKENS. Three tablespoons, two minutes in the ghee until the colour deepens and the raw smell goes. It is what keeps a very green pot from tasting flat and grassy.
6. THE FRESH CORIANDER AND LEMON GO ON AT THE END. A handful stirred through off the heat and lemon squeezed at the table. Forty minutes of cooking has flattened everything green; these put the brightness back.
7. The ghee heated and the beef browned HARD in batches, then lifted out.
8. The onions softened 8 MINUTES, the garlic in for 1 MINUTE.
9. The tomato purée fried 2 MINUTES until DARKENED, then the chopped tomatoes, ground coriander and allspice.
10. The beef returned with the 600 ml of water and simmered, lid on, 1 HOUR.
11. ALL the raw finely chopped spinach stirred in, with its water. Seasoned.
12. Simmered a further 40 MINUTES, until the spinach has lost all structure and the pot is a thick dark green sauce.
13. The fresh coriander stirred in off the heat.
14. TESTED: the sauce should coat the back of a spoon and show no separate leaves. Bright green and leafy means it needs longer.
15. Served over rice with lemon.

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