Basha or Pasha?

 Today I want to talk and share with you one of the most recipes that I love and will cherish for the rest of my life. This dish makes me feel like "Anton Ego" in the movie Ratatouille when he used to eat this dish in his childhood and made him remember all the good memories. This dish is "Dawood Basha Kofta".

Dawood Basha is a middle eastern meatball stew, it is a dish from Syria and Lebanon. Many people say that it was named after a great "Basha" and this name was similar to "Sir" and called "Pasha" in Turkey and it was said that this Basha was Turkish. But, who is Dawood Basha?.

Many sayings said that he was a nobleman in the levant and he used to like this dish or it was created in his kitchen. On another note, People say that Dawood Basha was a governor of Lebanon in the 19th century.  

This dish have been developed in the Arab countries and each country likes to put its own touch in its recipe. But, I want to talk about a recipe that is special to my heart which is the recipe of my beloved late Grandmother.

She was the best one to cook this meal. We used to go to her Every Thursday and she would make her own Dawood Basha and add some potatoes to it with her special red sauce and once you have the first bite, you would feel such a warm hug and all the love in the world.

My Grandmother was a pro in this field and she used to keep all her recipes a secret or if it is an ordinary dish, she would have a secret ingredient in it. 

All of her sisters tried to cook her famous "Dawood Basha" and they would have a competition who makes it the best but, all of them failed to top her delicious dish. After she passed away, we tried to search around her house for any notebook that she could've written the recipe in it but, we didn't find anything. Then, the best thing ever has happened!!!!!

We opened her fridge by coincidence because we were removing everything from her apartment and found a bag of frozen Dawood Basha kofta in it. At this moment, my mother decided to take the bag and to deal with it as an experiment and analyze each ingredient in it. 

Unfortunately, it was difficult for us to figure out this delicious recipe but, I'll tell you the Egyptian Dawood Basha Kofta recipe. All you need is:

-Half kilo Ground Beef

-1 Medium chopped onion

-Half teaspoon of salt

-Half teaspoon of black pepper

-Half teaspoon cinnamon

-Half teaspoon seven spices

-2 tablespoons oil

-3 minced garlic cloves

-2 tablespoons tomato paste

-1 cup of chopped tomatoes

-1 cup and a half of hot water

-(cinnamon-salt-seven spices for the sauce).

In a large bowl, we'll add the ground beef and add on it the chopped onions, salt, pepper, spices and cinnamon then, we'll mix them all together and shape the beef in a medium sized balls. We will leave in 30 mins in the refrigerator.  Then, we'll place 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan and will put the kofta in it until it is browned color then, we'll take it out and put the garlic cloves in the same pan until it has a gold color . After that, we'll get a cooking pot and put the tomato paste with the chopped tomatoes , garlic, spices and of course the kofta in it and add a cup and a half of hot water. We'll mix them and leave it for 10 mins and FINALLY it is ready to be served. Bon Appetit!.