As we’re not travelling around at the moment, I thought I’d share our experiences with food in Egypt and around the world.

There are many challenges when cooking abroad, such as not being able to obtain the necessary ingredients, different names for different things, seasonal variations.  All of this makes it fun to improvise and modify recipes as required.

One of our favourite tips here is with fresh herbs.  Coriander, Parsley, Dill and Mint are the four regularly available herbs here, and are around 1 LE for 2 bunches.  Left to their own devices, they will wilt and dry out within the day (during the summer).  Placed in the fridge you may get 3 days out of them.

We’ve found a way to prolong the life of these herbs, and the trick also works with spinach and rocket as well.

After buying the herbs, we wash them and then chop the bottom of the stems off.  With Coriander, this gives the bonus of retaining the roots, which we freeze for future use in tagens, curry sauces etc.  We then wrap a piece of folded kitchen towel around the bottom of the stems and place them in a bowl (homemade here, from the sliced-off bottom of a water bottle).  Add a couple of millimetres of water into this, then place the bowl and herbs into a small plastic bag.  We use bags that we have been given when we buy groceries from the local shops.  Tie the handles of the bag loosely and put the result in the door of the fridge.

We then have easy-to-access fresh herbs that stay fresh for much longer.  Sometimes as long as two weeks!

Anyway, we hope you enjoy our ramblings.