Egyptian Fatteh

Start cooking opens one step at a time with read-aloud and hands-free voice control — “next”, “repeat”, “how much salt”, “timer 10 minutes”.

1. 1To prepare bread for bottom of dish: Take pita bread and rip into bite size pieces. In a frying pan, add about a 1/4 stick of butter, add bread pieces and fry until golden and crisp.
2. 2Put these pieces in a glass baking dish, preferably a square sized dish. Set aside.
3. 3Next, add to same pan, a little more butter, salt, about 2 cloves of crushed fresh garlic, and a teaspoon or so of cumin stir around a bit until you can smell aroma, then add fried bread pieces to this mixture, stir to coat bread and put back into glass baking dish.
4. 4Set aside.
5. 5To prepare meat: put some butter in a pot, stir fry meat until brown, add 1 onion quartered, salt & pepper, 1 cube of chicken bouillon and water to cover meat.
6. 6Let come to a boil, turn down to simmer, cover and cook until tender, about 2 hours. After meat has cooled, take out chunks of meat and put in a mixing bowl, keep to one side.
7. 7Reserve soup from the meat separately.
8. 8To prepare the rice: Put some butter into a pot, add shareya (fideo noodles) like a handful or so, keep stirring until golden brown, not too dark, but very golden.
9. 9Next, add two cups of rice, stir a little bit until some of the rice turns an opaque white. Add 2-1/4 cups of water and salt to taste. Turn up the heat until boils, cover and turn down to simmer, cook until tender.
10. 10Test the rice tenderness after about 35 minutes.
11. 11Now take some of the soup from meat and add to the top of the bread pieces in baking dish to saturate.Add cooked rice on top of bread pieces.
12. 12Slowly spoon remainder of soup onto rice, looking at glass dish sides to see level of soup, should reach just to top of rice, don’t worry, this doesn’t have to be exact.
13. 13Now you’re ready to make the sauce and fry the meat to put on top.
14. 14To prepare red sauce: In a pan, add a little oil or butter, crushed tomato, a half teaspoon of tomato paste, salt & pepper, 2 cloves of fresh crushed garlic and cumin.
15. 15Add also roughly 3 tablespoons of vinegar, stir this until you smell aroma and it is a bit smooth. It should be a bit thick, not watery, but if too thick you can add a bit of water.
16. 16Spread with a wooden spoon atop the rice to cover.
17. 17To fry meat: In a pan add a bit of butter or oil, the meat, just a touch of tomato paste, about a tablespoon of fresh crushed garlic, salt & pepper, a teaspoon of cumin. Cook until meat is golden fried.
18. 18ServeSpoon this atop the rice and serve.