[dropcap custom_class=”normal”] Hello beautiful people, let’s take our taste buds on a food trip to Libya today. Who else loves trying new recipes? The recipe we would be looking at is called Asida.
Asida is a traditional dish in Libya popularly served during certain celebrations such as Eid (a celebration that makes the end of Ramadan), births etc. It is also referred to as the Arabic boiled flour pudding
It is a boiled flour pudding cooked directly in water. The flour is made of wheat or whole-meal flour dough cooked in water. Let’s see the procedure of preparing this here… [/dropcap]
Ingredients for the Asida Food Recipe
- 25g butter
- 1 tea spoon (tsp) of salt
- 300g flour
- 1 litre boiling water
Note: use measurement as related to the number of people you plan to serve. The above ingredients measurement will serve 4 people.
Procedure For Preparing Asida
- Fill a deep pot with ½ litre of hot water. Add 25g butter and a teaspoon of salt.
- Leave on medium heat until the water starts to boil.
- Sift the flour then pour it into the pan all at once then remove from heat.
- Immediately start to stir the flour into the buttery water.
- Press the dough against the side of the pot to remove lumps.
- Once the dough is smooth, with the help of the wooden spoon form it into one lump.
- Put the pot back on the heat and add another half liter of boiling water.
- Use the wooden spoon to form some hollows in the dough. Do not cover and leave to cook on low heat until the water is absorbed. Midway during this process, turn the lump upside down.The dough’s cooking takes about 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat. Immediately begin kneading, using a wooden spoon to smooth the asida. If you have a machine that will knead bread dough then it will handle asida fine.
- Melt about 75g of butter or samn (ghee).
- Brush a wide plate with butter.
- Place the asida in the center and begin folding in the edges to form a smooth dome.
- Once the edges are folded in, roll the asida to even out any cracks.
- Turn upside down and use a buttered ladle to form a hollow in the asida.
What to Serve Asida With
After you’ve flipped over the asida to the smooth surface, you can serve it with either honey or date syrup. You can also use melted butter or ghee (a clarified butter originating from India)
- Pour the melted butter or ghee around the asida.
- Pour honey or date syrup in the hollow. Serve immediately.
You can tweak how you serve this dish for children.
Smiley Face Asida for Children
Because children are more likely to eat when their meal looks interesting to them, you can change the way you serve their own Arabic flour pudding to an interesting smiley faced Asida.
Come on, let’s take a look at the steps to give this lovely flour pudding a neat smiley face children will love.
- Put a small amount of asida dough in a small bowl and press it down with the back of a spoon to form a smooth dome as above, then turn it upside down on a flat plat.
- Use a circular object to make two deep hollows for the “eyes.”
- Use a spoon to form a curved line for the “smile”.
- Pour honey or date syrup into the eyes. You could also sprinkle sugar in the “smile.”
- Pour melted butter around the asida. Serve immediately with a glass of cold milk
What makes Asida different from the regular flour pudding is that it is eaten with honey or date syrup and melted butter. Some people use olive oil or samn (ghee) instead of butter.
This recipe is usually used for breakfast meals. Asida is a communal meal which means it is served in a large flat plate, and it is generally eaten with the fingers, although spoons can be used.
Credits
Recipe & Photo: Libyan Food Blog
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