Friday, May 22, 2009

Jachnoon

Friday is always a difficult blog day for some reason. So I think having a theme will help. So from now on it's "Food Friday" (until it isn't). We had a huge Friday night dinner here, but that not today's subject. No, today I'm going to show you how we make jachnoon.

Brian taught me this, he knows, as he is married to a Yemenite. Jachnoon is a traditional Yemenite dish, prepared Friday and cooked overnight on low heat and eaten Saturday (therefore not breaking the Sabbath). Like most Yemenite dishes jachnoon is made from flour and margarine. We (and almost everyone else in Israel) buys it frozen at the super. As you can see we only use the highly recommended "Opera" brand.

Firstly, you line the bottom of the tin (a juchnoon tin costs 27NIS about $7) with bread. I'm using an old pita as we are currently out of bread. It's believed that this absorbs some of the run off marg and makes the jachnoon less oily. Next you push the jachnoon into the tin packing it quite tightly. Note the oily goodness. The jachnoon is covered with aluminum foil and a few eggs are placed on the foil. . By morning these eggs are well cooked and I'm told they're delicious.

The tin is sealed with its lid and placed in a low oven (I use 85 degrees C, or 185 degrees F) overnight. I will post pictures of the results in the morning.

Here is the finished product. Served with Azizza's tabbouleh, 5% white cheese, chopped salad and Schoog (hot sauce). The family enjoyed it.


4 comments:

arnieo said...

Looks delicious but since when do you eat eggs?

Jozie said...

He doesn't eat eggs, Arnie.
The rest of us do, and its actually my favorite kind of egg. It bakes to a light brown color. Looks weird at first but it is delicious. Personally, I stay away from Jachnoon as it has more fat and calories than anything. But it is delicious with zchug (very spicy stuff), chopped salad and Israeli white cheese.

joch said...

Should the aluminum foil be reflective-side up or down?

blackpetero said...

A very important question this. I have done considerable research on this topic and am happy to say that it makes absolutely no difference. The only important thing is to make sure there is enough foil so you can lift all the horrid eggs out easily without burning your fingers. If you use too little foil, it tears easily and the eggs have a tendency to drop on the floor. They are nuclear reactor hot.