Eid Al-Adha Recipes

(Note: I've personally tried all of these recipes.)

Recipe 1: Raw Meat

After slaughtering the animal and opening up its belly, take a small piece of raw liver, tail fat, or meat, chew, and swallow. There's something quite different about meat that is still warm from the animal's own heat. If you're not slaughtering a fat-tailed type of sheep, then you can also take some of the fatty lining that surrounds the stomach. Another variation is beef sashimi: take very thin strips of lean beef and dip in Flicken Sauce: a mixture of Sriracha and Soya sauces.

Coming from an Egyptian background, eating raw meat has never gone along well with my family. Egyptians perceive eating raw meat as being disgusting, and some even think it's Islamically forbidden. My aunt once started crying when my brother ate grilled meat that was browned on the outside and raw on the inside. Once a Lebanese man was explaining to an Egyptian butcher that he was planning on preparing raw kibbeh only to have the butcher kick him out of his shop saying, "We're Muslims!" I have long been a fan of raw meat, but to my delight, I found that my brothers-in-law are as well, but only when extremely fresh.


Recipe 2: Egyptian Fetta

This is the national dish of Egypt on Eid Al-Adha. As usual, I don't give measurements.

Peel and quarter onions, throw in a pot of water with salt, pepper, cardamoms, and mastic (if available). Once the water starts boiling vigourously, throw in some fatty lamb, wait for it to boil, and then lower the heat and leave it covered until the lamb becomes tender. In the meantime, break up some pita bread into small pieces and dry until crisp in the oven. Make some plain white rice. (Prepare the rice with lamb broth for extra flavour.) Pound some garlic into a mash and fry with butter or olive oil.

Now comes the assembly: put the crispy bread pieces on the bottom of a flat serving dish, followed by the rice, followed by the meat. Pour hot broth over the whole mixture. Heat up the fried garlic and pour some vinegar on it. Make sure to gasp while pouring the vinegar on the garlic as it sizzles loudly. (That's a part of the tradition.) Pour the garlic and vinegar mixture on top of the meat and rice.

Note: My wife is Jordanian and loves this dish. I took the dish to work once for a potluck and most people didn't like it. Then again, these are people who don't eat fresh meat or olive oil because they're afraid to get fat and instead share a pack of corn grits with cheese flavouring among themselves for lunch.


Recipe 3: Flicken Lamb Brains

This recipe is my own invention.

First, acquire boiled lamb brains. One such way is to cook a sheep head in the same way that you'd prepare fetta. After eating the cheeks, eyes, tongue, and skin, you are left with nothing but brains and bones. While you can open the skull with a hammer or saw, my favourite way is to find the sutures of the fused cranium and wedge a strong knife in and saw across them. You can then usually pull the skull apart with your hands. Remove the brains and put in a plate.

Mash the brains. In a separate bowl, beat two eggs. If you have Jordanian clarified butter (which comes from ewes and has a herb called smeinah added to it), then you're set. Otherwise, you can use regular (cow) clarified butter with a bit of curry powder added to it. Add salt, fry the brains a bit, and add eggs. Eat with fresh bread and possibly some hot sauce.