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Recipe Book Review – Amina’s Home Cooking

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Amina's Home Cooking Recipe Book Cover

Amina’s Home Cooking Recipe Book Cover

Amina Elshafei won her place on Masterchef Australia 2012 from 7,500 applicants and she shot to fame as one of the top twelve finalists.  During the competition Amina drew very heavily on her unique Egyptian and Korean heritage, creating dishes influenced through those cooked at home by both of her parents and her grandmother.  Her book, Amina’s Home Cooking, again draws on these influences, creating achievable recipes that you can create at home.

Very usefully, the book begins with a list of staples for a Middle Eastern kitchen, explaining each of the ingredients that may be unfamiliar.  This is followed by the same for a Korean Kitchen and then the chapter headings: Starters, Vegetables, Legumes and Grains, Seafood, Poultry, Meat and Desserts, each of these include both Korean and Middle eastern dishes.

Quail Stuffed With Couscous

Quail Stuffed With Couscous

I delved straight in and cooked the middle eastern dish of quails stuffed with couscous.  The recipe was easy to follow, all the ingredients and spices readily available at my smaller local supermarket.  Although some of the ingredients for the Korean dishes may have to be ordered on line if you live outside a big city.  The results were delicious, juicy and fully of spicy flavours I hadn’t used before.  I’ve since used the couscous in a different dish and the spice mix in yet another.  The Middle Eastern Baked Eggs, Amina has agreed I can share with you, is a wonderful recipe.  Rich with cumin, paprika, garlic and sumac, this dish of haloumi, eggs, chickpeas and tomato is perfect for breakfast or brunch.

Middle Eastern Baked Eggs

Middle Eastern Baked Eggs Photograph By Luisa Brimble

This is a cookbook, with wonderful photographs by Luisa Brimble,  that makes you dig in and explore flavours and dishes that are a new experience.

Get to know Amina a little better and discover her favourite three course meals from her book, Amina’s Home Cooking in this Q and A.

Amina Elshafei

Amina Elshafei

What was the deciding factor that finally made you pursue your food dream and enter Masterchef Australia?
My sister Eman and I were watching Masterchef Australia 2011 at home one day when they started advertising applications for the 2012 series. She suggested that I applied since I love cooking and initially I kept laughing it off. A few days before the deadline for applications, I submitted the online application with not a lot of hope. A few weeks later I was invited to the initial interviews and so it all began!
After leaving Masterchef Australia what did you do next?
Masterchef Australia has definitely opened a lot of doors with amazing opportunities. I’ve been able to travel both nationally and internationally for great food experiences including demonstrations, television promos and social media opportunities. On the national level, I’ve been lucky to do quite a number of cooking classes, demonstrations and of course release my cookbook (which is also going internationally)!
In Masterchef Australia challenges you made Gozleme a few times, I was looking forward to seeing your recipe for it, as it always looked so delicious.  Why did you leave it out of the book?
I remember that group challenge in Tasmania when we pumped out so many gozlemes for the market day in Hobart. My goodness, all our arms were aching from all the dough making and rolling hahahaha! Unfortunately I didn’t include that recipe in the book because I never actually cooked it for my family! I only made it on a few occasions in the Masterchef house for the contestants but, you never know eventually I might post up a recipe online.
How did you choose which to include?
I had 80 recipes to decide on including in the book and I must admit it was pretty hard choosing. 90% of the book is based on recipes that I grew up eating at home as they were the cultural foods of my parents. The other 10% are either modernised versions or favourite recipes I have picked up on my recent travels that I have cooked for my family and friends.
I made quails stuffed with couscous from Amina’s Home Cooking, which was beautifully spiced, sweet and delicious.  which is the recipe in your book that you make most often and which is your favourite dish?
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe! It’s difficult choosing my favourite dish out of the book, but I enjoy probably cook the Basbousa (semolina slice), stuffed snapper, Bibimguksu (spicy Korean mixed noodles) and Adis (lentil soup) recipes the most.
If you were cooking a three course meal for friends from your book, which three dishes would you make?
For an Egyptian experience, I would make Wara Einab (stuffed vine leaves), Barbounia Fil Forn (red mullet baked with tomatoes and onions) then finish off with the Basbousa Bi Goz-el-Hind (semolina slice with coconut). For a Korean experience, I would start with Japchae (potato starch noodles with vegetables), followed by Kalbijim (braised beef spare ribs in sweet soy sauce) served with steamed rice and kimchi (the fermented cabbage version) then Hotteok (stuffed Korean pancakes).
With a Korean mother and an Egyptian father which are their favourite dishes from the book and are they what you expected them to be?
Dad’s favourite recipes are the charcoaled grey mullet because it reminds him so much of his hometown, the seaside city of Alexandria in Egypt. As for mum, her favourite recipe is the kimchi Bindadok (kimchi pancakes) as it also reminds her of  her childhood when her father would cook these pancakes for the family especially when it rained. The recipes are based on what my parents have taught me… So I’m hoping that’s what they’re expecting!
How long did it take for your book to come to fruition and how did it feel the first time you held the finished cook book in your hands?
The making of the booking took a little over 2 years with the patience, kindness, dedication and creativity of Lantern Books (an imprint of Penguin Books). It certainly was a long time coming due to a lot of travelling during that period as well as work commitments, but the feeling of having that finally completed book in my hands was just sublime. It was more than I expected it to be and made my family and I very proud to be able to share our recipes with other home cooks.
What are your plans next?
I hope to continue to teach people how to cook as well as teach about unique Korean and Middle Eastern food products. There will be more pop-ups in Sydney in the future that have been popular in the past. I do hope to be more online-involved with recipes and maybe interactive online videos in the future. However, I am still happily nursing as a paediatric registered nurse in Sydney whilst still fulfilling a culinary career and life!

5.0 from 1 reviews
Middle Eastern Baked Eggs
 
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A delicious mix of cumin, paprika, Sumak, chick peas, tomato and eggs. Add crusty bread and have a delicious sharing breakfast or brunch.
Glamorous Glutton:
Recipe type: Breakfast, Brunch
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 200g Sujuk, cut into 1cm thick slices on a diagonal
  • ½ Onion finely chopped
  • 1 Clove garlic finely chopped
  • 300g Canned chickpeas, rinsed twice and drained
  • 1 x 400g Diced tomatoes
  • ½ tsp Sumac
  • 1 tsp Ground cumin
  • 1 tsp Sweet paprika
  • Salt
  • 12 Pitted black olives, halved
  • 100g haloumi, cut into 2cm cubes
  • 1 Small bunch spinach, roughly chopped
  • 6 Eggs
  • Roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley, to garnish
  • Crusty bread or flatbread and lemon cheeks to serve
Method
  1. Place a heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat and fry the Sujuk for 3 minutes to allow the fat to render. Using a metal spoon, remove the rendered fat, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pan. Add the onion and garlic and fry for 2 minutes, until fragrant. Add the chickpeas, tomato, sumac, cumin and paprika and season with salt to taste. Cook for about 2 minutes, until the sauce starts to bubble, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Scatter the olives, haloumi and spinach over the top and cook until the spinach begins to wilt.
  2. Make six small indentations in the mixture and gently crack an egg into each one. Cover the pan with a lid or foil and cook for 3 minutes or until the eggs are cooked to your liking; this dish works best if you leave the egg yolks runny.
  3. Garnish with parsley, then serve straight from the pan with crusty bread or flatbread and lemon cheeks alongside.

Amina’s Home Cooking is available from bookshops RRP £18.99 or online

I was sent the book to review by Lantern Books an imprint of Penguin Australia, all opinions are my own

Comments

  1. Liking the sound of the baked eggs GG, sounds like an interesting twist on a shakshouka.
    I keep hearing about how good the Australian Mastefchef is, I really must find a way of watching it online.
    Janie x

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  2. I remember her from the Australian series. She did do very well in the competition. I’ve heard very good things about her cookbook and she certainly has an interesting heritage xx

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  4. She sounds lovely! And that quail dish looks stellar. I love gozleme-we are a bit obsessed with it in this household so I can understand why you were after the recipe. We make a spinach and cheese version. I’d love to see her recipe for gozleme 🙂

    Reply

  6. Egyptian and Korean sounds very exotic, what an amazing fusion of flavours that must produce. I was almost expecting a massive chilli hit to be added to the Baked Eggs recipe, but it looks delicious anyway 😉

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  8. Ooh, I really liked her on the show – seemed like such a lovely person! This looks like my kind of book – I like the review and your baked eggs look incredible! Definitely going on the cookbook wish list – you can never have too many cook books!

    Reply

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