Bisella

Egyptian home-style green pea stew braised with beef, onion, garlic, and tomato, served over vermicelli rice

Origin: Egypt

From the journey of Pea.

Bisella (بسلة, the Egyptian Arabic word for the pea itself) is one of the quiet anchors of the Egyptian home kitchen, the kind of dish that rarely appears in restaurants because it is so thoroughly domestic. It belongs to the great Egyptian family of khodar bil lahma, vegetables braised slowly with a little meat in a garlicky tomato sauce, of which bamia (okra), molokhia, and fasolia (white beans) are the other pillars. Each is built on the same logic: an inexpensive cut of beef or lamb simmered until tender, a vegetable cooked down in the rich red sauce, and the whole ladled over rice to make a complete, frugal, deeply savoury meal. The pea has been grown in the Nile Valley since the fourth millennium BCE, one of the founder pulses that arrived with the spread of agriculture from the Fertile Crescent, and it has never left the Egyptian table. Before the freezer it was the dried pea that sustained the lean months; today bisella is most often made with fresh spring peas or, the rest of the year, with frozen ones, which suit this long braise admirably. What distinguishes the Egyptian version from the many other pea-and-meat stews of the Mediterranean is the depth of the tomato base and the finishing flourishes of the Egyptian kitchen: the garlic crushed with coriander and fried at the end (the taqliya that perfumes so much Egyptian cooking), and the bed of rice studded with toasted vermicelli on which it is always served. It is comfort food in the truest sense, the dish of a thousand family lunches.

Ingredients

Stew

  • 600 g stewing beef, cut into 3 cm cubes
  • 700 g fresh or frozen green peas
  • 2 piece onions, finely chopped
  • 5 piece garlic cloves, crushed
  • 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp tomato purée
  • 3 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 0.5 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 piece bay leaf

Seasoning

  • 1.5 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 0.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Finishing

  • 3 piece garlic cloves, crushed, plus 1 tsp ground coriander (for the finishing taqliya)

Method

  1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the ghee in a heavy pot over a medium-high heat. Brown the beef cubes well on all sides in batches, then set aside.
  2. Lower the heat to medium, add the chopped onion to the same pot, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes until soft and golden. Add the crushed garlic, ground coriander, and cumin, and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
  3. Return the beef to the pot. Stir in the tomato purée and cook for 2 minutes, then add the chopped tomatoes, the bay leaf, salt, and pepper, and enough hot water to barely cover the meat. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook gently for about 1 hour, until the beef is tender.
  4. Add the peas to the pot, stir, and simmer uncovered for a further 15 to 20 minutes (a little less for frozen, until just tender; longer for fresh), until the peas are soft and the sauce has thickened around them.
  5. Make the finishing taqliya: heat the remaining tablespoon of ghee in a small pan, add the crushed garlic and the teaspoon of ground coriander, and fry for under a minute until aromatic and just golden. Stir this fragrant mixture through the stew.
  6. Rest for a few minutes, then serve hot over Egyptian vermicelli rice (ruz bil shaghria), with flatbread alongside.

Notes

Bisella is endlessly adaptable: it is often made with carrots added alongside the peas (bisella bil gazar), and a vegetarian version omits the meat entirely and is no less satisfying. Lamb may be used in place of beef. The dish reheats and even improves overnight.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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