Melokiyah
Madness
Our melokiyah feature this month
has extolled the virtues of melokiyah. Here in the Cooking
with Tour Egypt department, we will look at an alternative
recipe to traditional melokiyah.
My mother in law, Gayle Radnich, is an
excellent, creative cook and is the person most responsible
for the development of my culinary talents. Recipes, cookbooks
and food magazines are all intense topics of conversation when
we are together. During a recent visit, she handed me the
recipe pages from the May 2001 issue of Cooking
Light magazine. "Look!
Middle Eastern recipes!" she exclaimed.
Tagine, stuffed dates, mint tea,
couscous.. pretty standard fare
I think to myself as I peruse the pages. "What’s
This??? Egyptian Greens-and-Chicken Stew??" I was
very excited when I saw this title, and even more excited when
I saw that the very first word in the recipe was… Melokiyah
!!
This recipe substitutes spinach for the melokiyah, because
melokiyah, fresh, frozen or
dried, can be very difficult to find. I have purchased it in
the US frozen and have had it sent to me in dried form
straight from Egypt.
Probably the only characteristic
missing from spinach is the quality of Melokiyah that acts as
a natural thickener. Otherwise, the seasonings give this dish
a great Middle Eastern flavor. I served it al fresco at
a luncheon for a few close friends and they loved it.
Egyptian Greens-and-Chicken Stew
- 8 cups water
- 2 cardamom pods
- 1 (2 ½) pound chicken, stewed
- 1 large onion, halved
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 (10 oz.) packages fresh spinach
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 10 garlic cloves, crushed
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 cups hot cooked rice
Combine first 5 ingredients in an
8-quart stock pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium
and cook, uncovered, for one hour. Remove from heat and remove
the chicken and let cool. Strain the chicken broth through
cheesecloth or fine sieve, into a bowl. Discard the remaining
solids.
Return the broth to the pan. Remove the
chicken bones, discard bones 
and shred the chicken into
bite-sized pieces. Keep warm.
(Note: I cooked my chicken a day ahead
and cooled the broth in the refrigerator, so that I could
remove the excess fat from the top.)
Place onion in a bowl and mash with a
fork or potato masher. Add onion to broth and bring to a boil.
Add spinach to broth in batches, cooking until wilted.
Heat the oil in a small, non-stick
skillet over medium-heat. Add the coriander, salt and garlic,
sauté’ 30 seconds or until garlic begins to brown. (This
garlic-salt-coriander mixture is called Ta’liya). Add to
spinach mixture and stir in lemon juice. Serve chicken and
spinach mixture over rice.
4 servings.
