Foul with Fresh Eggs from the Backyard Fowl

Foul/Ful with poached eggs

I'm pleased Billie's first encounters with chickens has been watching them peck around friends' backyards. At least she won't be shocked when she finds out where the white fleshy stuff on others' plates comes from. Her dadda loves to recount the story of freaking out his nephew in Chicago many moons ago, when Miles informed young Justin of the roots of the food on his plate. Justin promptly ran off and told his mama Millicent that uncle Miles was telling tales.

Keeping a few chooks in your Sydney backyard has become popular with the rise of rent-a-chook schemes. A New Zealand newspaper recently proclaimed it as 'the new black'.

Unfortunately our landlord won't let us keep chooks in the shared hallway, so we have to make do with visits to Toni and Tim's Petersham chicken coop and Miream and Chris' Kingsford egg-layers.

Of course the best thing about having chickens roaming your yard is the constant supply of fresh, organic eggs on your back-doorstep. It's more than one family can get through, even if you eat frittata every day. Yesterday Miream sent us home from brunch clutching half a dozen spare eggs.

And what a brunch it was. Miream's Palestinian-Canadian mother is a chef in Toronto. We feasted on her fodder in December when she came out to cook for Miream and Chris' wedding. She was there to bless the couple too but her kitchen skills came in very handy.

Miream re-produces her ma's foul medammas

Yesterday Miream produced her mother's Foul adaptation and served it with fresh poached eggs and toast. Unfortunately for me, Miream is one of these cooks who doesn't measure or write recipes down. I did my best to transcribe her mum's special Foul. It's pronounced 'fool'.

MIREAM'S FOUL MEDAMMAS

Fava beans - Miream used 2 tins or you could soak and boil 2 cups dried fava

1/2 lemon, juiced

green chilli -mild (depending on who serving to)

about 4 fresh tomatoes

1-2 cloves garlic, crushed 

bunch of parsley, finely chopped

1 green and 1 red pepper/capsicum, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil to pour on top at end

Mash beans and heat up in small pot with garlic, lemon, chilli. Blend and then stir through chopped vegetables. Serve warm with toast and poached eggs.

From wikipedia:
Ful medammas (Arabic: فول مدمس‎ fūl mudammas), also known as foul medammas, is a Middle Eastern dish of cooked and mashed fava beans served with olive oil, chopped parsley, onion, garlic and lemon juice. It is often served for breakfast.

And yes, Billie enjoyed it spread on toast. It's beans, after all. There's something very cool about chomping on poached eggs while the chickens peck under your feet.