[Sca-cooks] Need a recipe...

[lilinah at mail.earthlink.net]

Philippa Alderton wrote:
>Margali just found and acquired some of that Middle
>Eastern dried beef you guys were discussing a while
>ago. The package says it's good served with eggs, but
>we were hoping some of you more into ME cookery might
>give us another suggestion or three. Period would be
>nice, but not necessary.

Well, i'm still catching up with Cooks Digests... Still on the 13th,
although i've started reading recent ones, which is how i saw this.

Is this dried meat Basterma? It's an Armenian specialty that isn't
exactly dried, but cured with salt, sugar, and spices. I'm rather
fond of it, but being a mannerless cretin, i just eat the slices the
way they are.

One website i came across suggested serving it with Pita bread and
Armenian string cheese, although this may be salt overkill.

Another said: "Delicious Fried with Eggs. Perfect for Sandwiches.
Great Pizza Topping." I suspect that rather than pizza, they're
thinking of some form of Lahmajun, which is flat bread topped usually
with ground lamb and seasonings (such as chopped fresh tomatoes,
onion, garlic, and parsley), then broiled until the meat is cooked.

I've also seen it just turn up on many mezze plates - a sort of
Mediterranean hors d'oeuvres platter - sliced basterma along with
stuffed grape leaves, boureg (which are basically spanakopita or
spanakotiropita), baba ganouj, hummos-bi-tahini, tabouli, Middle
Eastern cheeses, chopped tomatoe and cucumber salad, etc., and flat
bread (if Armenian, then lavosh, NOT pita).

Of course, if what you have is NOT basterma, then forget all this :-)

Anahita