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Bamia, Egyptian Okra and Beef Stew

Beef simmered slow with okra in a garlicky tomato sauce until the meat gives. Serve it over rice and let the sauce do the work.

Bamia, Egyptian Okra and Beef Stew, plated and ready to serve
Serves
6
Total time
105 min
Cost per serving (United States)
$8.47

Ingredients

  • 2 lb beef stew meat
  • 16 oz frozen cut green beans
  • 1 yellow onions
  • 5 clove garlic
  • 28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
  • 1 oz tomato paste
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 cup long grain white rice

Method

  1. Pat the beef dry and brown it hard in the oil, in two batches. Crowding the pan steams it and you lose the crust.

  2. Lift the beef out. Soften the chopped onion in the same pot, then add half the garlic and the tomato paste and cook two minutes.

  3. Return the beef with the crushed tomatoes and enough water to nearly cover. Simmer covered for one hour, until the meat gives to a fork.

  4. Add the green beans and cook 20 minutes more, uncovered, so the sauce reduces.

  5. Crush the remaining garlic with the chopped cilantro and the cumin, and stir it in during the last two minutes. This is the taqliya and it is the whole point.

  6. Cook the rice while the stew finishes.

  7. Taste for salt and serve over the rice.

What this costs, country by country

Each figure is the ingredients for the full recipe at prices read in that country’s own shops, in its own currency. Nothing here is converted from dollars.

The cost of this recipe in 11 countries, each in its own currency, with how many of the 10 ingredients we could price in each. Figures are not converted between currencies, so the rows cannot be ranked against each other.
CountryWhole recipePer servingPriced from
Australia$79.36$13.2310 of 10 ingredients
Austria€ 51,21€ 8,5410 of 10 ingredients
United States$50.83$8.479 of 10 ingredients
United Kingdom£32.82£5.479 of 10 ingredients
New Zealand$55.69$9.289 of 10 ingredients
Canada$149.92$24.999 of 10 ingredients
Germany69,18 €11,53 €9 of 10 ingredients
Mexico$1,275.02$212.508 of 10 ingredients
Egypt‏١٬٠١٨٫٥٥ ج.م.‏‏١٦٩٫٧٦ ج.م.‏7 of 10 ingredients
Spain9,77 €1,63 €7 of 10 ingredients
Greece14,27 €*2,38 €5 of 10 ingredients

* We have read fewer than seven in ten of these ingredients in that country, so the total is a partial figure and the real one is higher.

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