Cooking Adventures

It's Christmas Cookie Time!!

I couldn't get through Christmas without my grandmother's famous sugar and spice cookies.
But baking them was an adventure as most things are here. It took no less than 8 trips to various grocery stores to collect all the ingredients. I had to learn that ghee is clarified butter. And that they sell vanilla extract dry here - like a packet of yeast. (Due to the alcohol content - seriously.) Baking soda is sold in pharmacies. And I also learned that a Swiss army knife and a coffee cup make a passable substitute for grinding spices. (Yes, I'm sure there are grinders or mortar and pestles here. But I didn't want to go to the additional effort to find them just for this.)

The molasses was the most difficult to find. Made even more so given that I dropped the first precious jar of it as soon as I got it home. Marble floors are not forgiving to glass jars. The ants ate well that night. I also learned that stores don't necessarily carry the same products all the time. I went back to the store where I first got molasses and there were none. So I looked in every store in Maadi until I found another jar.

The next step in the adventure is contending with the stove. It's a gas stove with no pilot light. So it has to be lit every time you use it. Besides crossing the street this is the most dangerous activity in Egypt. I have burned the hairs on my arms more than once. I finally found a fireplace lighter - but it ran out of fluid on the second use. So, until I can find a refill, I now stick a match in the end of the lighter, crouch by the side of the stove - I've learned to not stand in font of it, turn on the gas, and anxiously await the huge POOF that lets me know it's lit. It's quite nerve racking actually. Also, the stove has no numbers or gauge of any kind to judge the temperature. The guessing game adds to the excitement.

The first patch of cookies weren't quite right. The flour is different, spices are different, everything is different. The cookies were edible, and even not bad if you didn't know what they were suppose to taste like. But they weren't grandma's really. If you've had gradma's cookies you know they are worth all the effort.

So back to the drawing board. I played with the recipe a bit, I sifted and resifted the flour, doubled the spices, etc. The second batch is perfect, still baking now as I write. It'll make great Christmas gifts.

A second humorous food adventure happened while I was searching for all the cookie ingredients. I went to the real super walmart here called Carrefour. The place is Huge. They sell almost anything you can find in Cairo. And they have a lot of European and American food products. I was overwhelmed with the variety and availability of foods - like American cereals and baking products, and foreign items like Thai and Mexican foods. I had a blast planning meals for the upcoming weeks. I was excited to find salsa and nacho chips - even if they were mostly crushed. I wistfully dreamed of a dinner of nachos and brownies and watching LOST with my sister. (Come on it's Christmas, of course I'm a little homesick - sue me.)

I got so carried away I forgot to check the price. I ended up paying $17 for a small jar of salsa. Yes, I said seventeen US dollars for a SMALL jar of salsa. Best damn salsa I ever had - NOT.

A very common saying here is: you can find anything here - for a price.

Enjoy your holidays and family traditions whatever they may be.