Fereek: Egypt's Incredible Green Wheat
Discover the story the ingredient used in iconic Egyptian foods.
Securing the edges on a baladi bread dough (2020-02-01) by NawayaNawaya
Why Egyptians love wheat
Wheat is one of Egypt's most cherished and strategic crops. Wheat flour is important for baking their daily bread. Bread, eish, is also the word for life in Arabic and no meal goes by for any Egyptian without a loaf of baladi bread.
What is fereek?
Farmers grow flour for bread, but the wheat can also be harvested early to make fereek. Farmers will designate portions of their wheat harvest to make fereek which is sold on the market at a much higher price than wheat.
Young boy cutting the green wheat (2019-04-13) by NawayaNawaya
How to make fereek?
Only the top part of the wheat stalks is removed to make fereek. The rest of the plant will be processed separately into animal feed.
Burning the green wheat in the field (2019-04-13) by NawayaNawaya
Burning the kernels
The farmers create long rows of green wheat across the farm, in preparation for a controlled burning. Burning the kernels is an important part of the fereek making process, as this is what allows it to store despite it being harvest before full maturity.
Green wheat after burning (2019-04-13) by NawayaNawaya
The farmers burn the green wheat, without fear of losing the crop. This is because the wheat kernels are still moist, and once the fire burns out they will remain intact. After burning, the green wheat kernels are still attached to the straw, and will go through a second step of processing.
Loading the burnt green wheat into threshing machine (2019-04-13) by NawayaNawaya
The threshing machine
What is left from the burning process is collected and loaded into a threshing machine. This process can also be done manually, but farmers that make fereek in large quantities rent the machine and tractor.
Freek out of threshing machine (2019-04-13) by NawayaNawaya
What's in the name?
The kernels are collected from the machine and now the chaff and stalks have been completely removed. This is where the name fereek comes from. In Arabic the noun mafrouk, is to describe the split kernels.
Green wheat out of the threshing machine (2019-04-13) by NawayaNawaya
Fereek - ready to be sold
The farmers pile the fereek ready to dry and be sold.
The secret to a delicious stuffed pigeon
Green wheat kernels are not used for baking, they are cooked and eaten whole like rice. Often fereek is preferred as a stuffing for iconic dishes like stuffed pigeon.
Traditional pigeon house
Egyptians are renowned for the pigeon raising, which is prevalent in the countryside but also raised in city rooftops in small coops.
Step inside the pigeon house
Traditional pigeon houses have built in integrated ladders, whereby a young, lightweight and agile person will climb up and snatch the young flightless pigeons from their nests.
Preparing the pigeons
Pigeons are small, with a very dark meat. They are always sold in pairs, because that is the right amount to feel full. Stuffed pigeons are usually made in large amounts!
Cooking the pigeons with fereek stuffing
The pigeons are stuffed, boiled and then refried. The fereek stuffing is lightly fried in samna (ghee), onions and spices.
Dinner is served!
Hamam mahshi fereek is a distinctive taste that is entirely different to typical rice stuffing. The burning process of the green wheat also echoes with a slightly smoked taste. Not only is it delicious, but also considered very healthy and great way to eat whole grains.
Curator: Laura Tabet
Research: Laura Tabet
Photography: Ahmed Dream, Nada Elissa, Haleem Elshaarani, Shaimaa Nasr
