Recipe of the Week: Bazailah

I’m back!!  After ten days of being in Austin, I couldn’t be happier to be back in Houston and back to cooking and blogging. I missed Z&Z more than I thought I would, and apparently my dad did too. I got a call from him before I even got back into town wondering which dish we were going to tackle next.

SXSW is an exhausting endeavor, so I opted for something easy to make but still pretty hearty. I was hanging out with some of my cousins a couple of weeks back and my cousin Donald mentioned how much he missed his mama’s Bazailah.  Since I hadn’t had it in awhile, I decided on this dish and invited my cousins over to try it out.

Bazailah is a pea stew that is served over rice. It turns out my mom didn’t write down a recipe for Bazailah, so I opted to cook this dish from my dad’s memory of how she used to make  it. I also got some great feedback from my cousins that I will be sure to incorporate for next time.

Bazailah

1 1/2 lbs. beef stew meat (or lamb)

2 – 12 oz. packages of frozen peas

1 medium onion – finely chopped

2 garlic cloves  – finely chopped

2+ garlic cloves – whole

1 – 6 oz. can of tomato paste

3 – 3 1/2 cups water

salt, pepper, allspice, cumin

Saute 2 cloves of garlic and 1 medium yellow onion in 2 tbs. of olive oil or samneh (clarified butter) until brown. Add the beef and saute for about 10 minutes and add spices towards the end of the cooking process.

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. allspice

1/2 tsp. cumin

Add one 6 oz. can of tomato paste and 1 1/2 cups of water. Stir and slowly add 2 more cups of water and another round of spices.

1/2 tsp of salt (could probably use a little more)

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. allspice

Add a couple of cloves of whole garlic for taste.

Bring to a boil  then lower to medium heat and cook for another 20-25 minutes.

Don’t over cook the peas. You still want them to have a bite to them.

Serve over rice.

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