Rice and meat Fattah (Egyptian)

and i put Egyptian in the title to distinguish it from the Syrian type of Fattah, which is quite different.

ok, continuing with the meat feast theme, as i mentioned earlier, in that season almost everyone who sacrifices an animal ends up with lots and lots of meat that has to be used before it gets old, so we get a little creative with it to avoid culinary boredom!
this recipe is made of toasted Egyptian bread or Lebanese pita bread, moistened with meat stock, with steamed rice and garlic tomato sauce on top, then some meat to top it all.. sounds like something you would enjoy?
this recipe i've learnt from one of Egypt's TV chefs, Chef Sherbini, which is the first Fattah recipe to turn out good for me, hoping you will meet the same luck:)

ingredients:

about 2 kg of red meat (beef is preferred) in big cubs.
i big onion or 2 small ones
200 g/ 2 cups white short grain rice
1 full head of garlic
S&P
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 big tomatoes (optional)
1 tbspButter/ Ghee/ 2 tbsp Olive oil
4 pieces of Egyptian bread(left) or Shami Pita bread(right) , if neither is found, tortilla flats would do

Preparation:

first we start by cooking the meat in water, adding S&P and the onions, make sure the water is covering the meat and once it boils, turn the heat down and leave to cook.

while the meat is cooking, start preparing the rice, now you can steam it or do it the Egyptian way which is as follows:
in a hot pot, add the fat of your choice (butter, oil or ghee) now you can add the whole load of rice, cover in water, add salt and leave to boil, bring down the heat, cover and leave to cook. alternatively, you can first fry some of the rice until golden/fry some Shaaria (capellini pasta) or what we locally call lesaan asfour (bird tongue) pasta, which i am sure they have a name for in Italian
once your choice of the above is golden, continue as before, adding the rice, mixing, adding water to cover and salt to taste, leave to bubble, cover, turn the heat down and leave to cook.

now we prepare the bread, some people like using it as is, and others prefer to toast it in the oven, some go one step further and fry the bread after toasting.. your call, the frying gives more taste but it also adds calories.

now to the daqqa - which is the name of the mix of liquids and spices we add to flavour some dishes, differs from one recipe to the other - so first we peel the garlic, mince it, season with S&P.
put aside 1 tbsp of that mix and fry the rest in a hot pan, with the type of fat you chose to use, until golden. add the vinegar and leave to boil then add little bit of water and taste, it should taste strongly of vinegar but not too strong.
if you chose to add tomatoes, clean and cut and make into juice, and use instead of the water in the previous step, leave to cook - should be done after about 5 minutes of boiling- and that's it for the daqqa/sauce

now to the serving steps
start by shredding the bread into bite size bits, now if you choose to fry them you do that then add some of the previously prepared daqqa/sauce to the bread in the pan, enough to moisten the bread and add about one ladle of meat stock, let it be absorbed then move to the serving plate.
if you chose not to fry the bread, you do the above directly in the serving plate.

next step is to add some of the previously cooked meat, about two pieces , cut into think strips and distribute on top of the soaked bread, then ad a little bit more daqqa/sauce.

then we add the rice, add few pieces of meat and pour the rest of the daqqa/sauce on top.
the rest of the meat we sauté with some butter and the saved garlic mix and serve on the side.

if you are into savoury dishes i am pretty sure you will like this one and make it again and again.

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