Bazin (bread) facts for kids
Bazin (center) served with a stew and whole hard-boiled eggs.
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| Place of origin | Libya |
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| Main ingredients | barley, water and salt |
Bazin (Arabic: البازين) is a special kind of bread from Libya. It's made without yeast, so it doesn't rise like regular bread. The main ingredients are barley flour, water, and salt.
To make Bazin, barley flour is boiled in water. Then, it's beaten really well to form a dough. This is done using a unique stick called a magraf, which is made just for this purpose. After mixing, the dough might be put into a pan to get firm, and then it's baked or steamed. The salt helps make Bazin quite firm and hard. It can have a texture that's both paste-like and hard. Sometimes, people also make Bazin using whole wheat flour, olive oil, and pepper.
How Bazin is Served
Bazin is usually shaped like a pyramid or a dome. It's often served with a tasty tomato sauce, eggs, potatoes, and mutton (lamb meat). A warm, tomato-based soup or a stew with meat and potatoes is poured on top or around the Bazin. It's often decorated with hard-boiled eggs. Sometimes, a raw egg is even placed in the hot soup, where it cooks quickly.
There's also a sweet dish called Aseeda, which is made using Bazin mixed with honey, date syrup, and butter or oil. Bazin can also be enjoyed with a cooked mixture of pumpkin and tomato sauce. When eating Bazin, people often crumble it and eat it with their fingers, usually using their right hand. It's a dish that's often shared and eaten together with family and friends. Bazin is known as a traditional and even a national dish of Libya.
Making the Sauce for Bazin
The sauce for Bazin is very flavorful. It's made by frying mutton (often from the shoulder or leg) with chopped onions. Many spices are added, like turmeric, salt, chili powder, helba (which is fenugreek), sweet paprika, and black pepper. Tomato paste is also a key ingredient. Sometimes, broad beans, lentils, and potatoes are added to make the sauce even heartier.
Once the sauce is ready, it's arranged around the Bazin dough dome, along with the eggs, potatoes, and meat. The dish is usually served with fresh lemon wedges and either fresh or pickled (called imsaiyar) chilies for an extra kick!
History of Bazin
In the past, Bazin was made a bit differently. The dough was shaped into small, palm-sized cakes. These cakes were cooked in water inside a special copper pot called a qidir. Once the barley cakes became solid, they were broken up in the pot using a large, flat, wooden ladle. Then, everything was mixed together to form one big piece of Bazin.
Nowadays, making Bazin can be much easier! Many people use a blender to mix the dough. Or, the dough might be cooked right away in water, similar to how you would make a pudding.
See also
In Spanish: Bazín para niños
