Egyptian Breakfast: Ful Medames With Fried Eggs
Image by leah koenig
The wine in this dish is an unexpected and nontraditional addition, but it adds delicious flavor. Don’t worry about drinking before noon — the alcohol cooks out before the beans touch your plate. Serve with pita for mopping up the sauce.
For the Beans:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling 1 large onion, finely chopped
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more to taste
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
1/4 cup dry red wine
2 15-ounce cans fava beans, with their liquid
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
chopped fresh, flat-leaf parsley, for serving
For the Eggs: 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 4 eggs
1) Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium pan set over medium heat. Add onion, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5–7 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, paprika, red pepper flakes and tomatoes, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 1–2 minutes.
2) Stir in red wine, and cook, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes soften and most of the liquid has evaporated, 3–5 minutes. Add fava beans with their liquid and bring to a simmer; reduce heat to medium low, cover pan and simmer until beans are tender, about 10 minutes. Uncover and continue simmering until liquid thickens and reduces by about three quarters, 8–12 minutes. Stir in lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper, then remove from heat. Taste and add additional salt and red pepper flakes, if desired.
3) Make the eggs: Brush the vegetable oil around the bottom of a medium pan set over medium heat and let warm. Crack each egg into a small cup, then gently slide the eggs into the pan. Cover and cook, undisturbed, until the whites are firm and yolks are still soft, 3–4 minutes.
4) Divide beans and sauce between bowls or plates and carefully top each with a fried egg, a drizzle of olive oil and chopped fresh parsley.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
