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MA7SOOL PRODUCTIONS presents
in association with Slow Food
Wa7y Rice
I'm Sara El Sayed, and I love food.
I love to travel and eat.
I heard that they plant rice in the oasis.
So I had to come and see for myself
There is rice being harvested right now, here in Farafra
I harvest about 30 - 40 tons per year.
So you help each other...
Yes, our lands are close to each other, we all help each other.
Little is known about this Oasis rice.
This type of rice has a thinner grain than usual white rice
When it is harvested, its chaff is removed, but the bran remains.
So it retains a lot of its nutritional value, as opposed to the typical white rice
So what do you do with this straw?
We gather it and feed it to the cows...
Do you burn it?
No, no one burns it here
We burn it in Cairo
Yes, in Cairo they do
Currently, the best place (to grow) in the oases is Farafra.
Why? Because it's all irrigated using naturally flowing water. Dakhla has no water...
So you use spring water?
Yes, springs. Natural Springs.
We're going to Bawiti now, to Badry's.
Bawiti is one of the towns, which are in the Bahareya Oasis.
They plant traditional trees and palms. Apricots, olives, and many types of dates.
Taste this.
In the past in Bahareya, the water used to come up from the ground naturally.
And in Dakhla, Kharga and Farafra, they used to pump wells using machines.
Badry is a lovely character.
He is always smiling.
One of my favorite things about Badry, is his sakooty.
I'm excited he's going to make us some sakooty.
Rice is usually cooked as sakooty.
Are you finished yet?
You really burn it.
Yes you have to burn it...
It's fried.
It's fried, but you have to burn it in order to get this color. Look.
I see; the color
Based on the color, you take out the chicken,
And then pour it on the rice.
You don't cook it with the chicken or the onions.
We take out the chicken, and add the rice.
The rice absorbed the darker color.
Simply put Sakooty is Oasis rice cooked with onions in chicken broth.
It's a simple recipe, but it tastes amazing.
First you have to fry some onions until they're brown.
Then you prepare a broth, usually chicken.
You need a lot, because wa7y rice takes up a lot of water.
Whenever the liquid dries up, you add more broth...
...until it soaks up all the broth. You may even have to add water.
When it's cooked you'll find the grains sticking together.
It's a bit like Risotto
One the most beautiful things about Egypt,
is its diversity.
The reason for this diversity is that Egypt been a crossroads of many civilizations.
What really highlights this diversity very well...
is food.