Lamb Machbous
Machbous is UAE’s one of the most traditional dishes. It is a festive dish although people of UAE prefer to have it quite frequently for its delicious taste and nutritional quality. It is mostly made with lamb, but this preparation can be tried with Pomfret fish as well as with chicken. The taste is wholesome and the effort it needs to cook the dish is worth trying.
The entire cooking process is divided in three portions:
- Preparing the meat
- Cooking the gravy
- Cooking the rice.
Ingredients (Serves 8 -10 people approximately)
For the lamb:
Lamb meat, well rinsed, dried, marinated overnight with
- Salt,
- Bezar spice,
- Lemon juice,
- Turmeric,
- Saffron
Instruction for preparing the gravy:
- Milkio’s Ghee for cooking
- Onions: 6 finely sliced
- Green chilies, garlic and ginger: 50g each, finely chopped
- Bezar spice: 3-1/2 Tablespoon
- Ground turmeric: 1/2 Tablespoon
- Ground cinnamon: 1 teaspoon.
- Cinnamon sticks and cardamom: 10 each
- Cloves: 8 cloves
- Dry Fruits(Sultanas, whole blanched almonds, and whole unsalted raw cashew nuts): 1 cup each,
- Fresh tomatoes: 6 chopped
- tomato paste: 1 cup,
- Curry leaves: a handful.
For cooking of the rice:
Ingredients
Rice: 2.5kg
Salt: as per need
Milkio’s Ghee a dollop
For Garnishing:
- 6 cups yellow split peas, boiled with salt and turmeric and sautéed with 3 finely sliced onions until the peas get brown
- 1 tablespoon bezar spice
- 2 teaspoon saffron, soaked in lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon rose water
Instruction for Cooking
Cooking the lamb
Take a deep sauce pan and add water into it. When water will start boiling add the lamb into it and boil lamb with salt, turmeric and a pinch of little bezar spice for next 45 minutes. Remove lamb from the stock and keep apart. Reserve the stock for preparing the rice.
In order to prepare gravy, heat milkio’s ghee in a large saucepan, and start sautéing onions until the onions become golden brown. Now add garlic, ginger, and green chilies and sauté them until the ingredients get tender and a little brown in color. Now add bezar spice, turmeric, crushed cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves and continue sautéing the mix on low heat for 3-4 minutes. Add tomato paste, curry leaves and half of the chopped fresh coriander. Now continue cooking on low heat for further a minute. Add lamb to it and season with salt.
To prepare rice, boil rice in large saucepan with 2.5 liters of water until all the water is absorbed. Then add the already prepared lamb stock and cook until all the stock gets absorbed in the rice. Spoon Milkio’s ghee over and keep aside.
Now spoon lamb and gravy on top of the rice and garnish with the remaining coriander. Cover the lid and cook for 10 minutes on low heat. Remove from heat and set rice aside. Garnish with sautéed split peas and bezar spice. Remove from heat, sprinkle with rose water and saffron. Serve hot and enjoy the delicacy.