When you hear the word béchamel, usually you think of a wafter thin sauce that lightly coats pasta. In Egypt - not so!
Béchamel in Egypt is THICK, maybe an inch or up to an inch and a half. It is so thick it does not coat the pasta, but sits broadly atop it, like a proud king regally sitting atop his thrown, crowned with a golden layer where the oven bakes it to fabulous perfection.
Béchamel can cover pasta, and in this case there is usually a layer of meat added, and occasionally a thin layer of tomato sauce as well (depending on how your family prefers it) and even sometimes a bit of cheese. It is also used in other dishes with ground beef, such as fried aubergine or fried zucchini (yum, yum and more yum). The most delicious dishes of "casserole" I've ever had.
