Libya : Mubattan Kusha : Layered Potato and Minced Meat Bake

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE I USED

I've been in the mood for "comfort food" lately and potato-related dishes fall into that category. (Potatoes can become so many wonderful things!)

So, when I saw this recipe, I was intrigued.

Basically, it is a ground beef (or lamb, if you prefer) and sliced potato casserole (there's some egg in there too). The flavor comes from onions, tomatoes, parsley and some herbs and spices. It's not a complicated meal but it does require time and prep work.

Cleaning and stripping the parsley felt like it took forever, even using an herb stripper.

The end result was okay. It wasn't bad, at all, but I ran into an issue with the cinnamon. I usually use cinnamon in dessert applications or where it is used in conjunction with other strongly-flavored spices and it doesn't stand out,. It stood out in this dish. Cinnamon-y ground beef and potatoes was just weird for me. This is a "me" thing.

I overcame the weirdness with ketchup but I'm a little disappointed in myself for needing to reach for the ketchup.

I will not make this again though I do plan to go back and explore other dishes from Libya later!

(If you ever find that the link to the recipe I used is no longer active or available, please contact me through this blog.)