Eating Around the World (From Home....And Gluten Free...)

Welcome to Qatar! I never think of places in the Middle East as having water or being close to water. But it is right on the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Bahrain. From the months of June through September, the ocean temperatures average between 89.5 degrees and 92 degrees. Somehow, that doesn't seem very refreshing...According to Google, the population is 2.55 million people and the capital is Doha. Their national dish is...

Machbūs!

Rice and chicken (or lamb...or beef...or camel...). But it is a one-dish-wonder with lots of spices. To go with the Machbus, we made Karak tea and Warak Enab (stuffed grape leaves). This seemed like a fairly easy and straight-forward dish to make, and we were excited to try it. Here's what I did:

MACHBUS

For Baharat (Spice Mixture)

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp cumin seeds

2/3 tsp coriander seeds

1/3 cinnamon stick (about 2 inches long)

1/3 tsp whole cloves

Seeds from 3 green cardamom pods

1 tsp paprika powder

Pinch of ground nutmeg

For Machboos
1 large onion
3 tbsp butter
1 tbsp baharat
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 1/3 pounds chicken, cut into chunks
1 hot green chile, seeded and diced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
5 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

3 tomatoes, diced
3 dried limes

5 green cardamom pods
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 stick cinnamon
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 cups rice

For Baharat (Spice Mixture): Set the paprika and nutmeg powders aside.
Place all remaining ingredients (whole seeds, cinnamon stick and cloves) in a small frying pan.
Dry roast over medium-high flame, for 2 minutes or until very fragrant.
Transfer to a spice grinder or pestle and mortar and let cool.
Add the paprika and nutmeg and grind all the ingredients to a fine powder.
For Machbus: Prep your ingredients: Chop the onion. Combine ginger, garlic and green pepper in one bowl.
Mix baharat and turmeric in another bowl.
Combine tomatoes, dried limes, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves in another bowl.
Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high flame and fry the chicken pieces on both sides.
Transfer the chicken to a plate and leave the remaining oil in the skillet.
Add the butter, reduce the heat to medium and fry the onions until starting to brown, about 10-12 minutes.
Mix the ginger, garlic, and green chile pepper and saute for another 2 minutes.
Add the baharat and turmeric and cook for another minute.
Put the chicken pieces into the skillet along with the tomatoes, dried limes, cardamom pods, cinnamon, and cloves.
Add the chicken stock and stir to combine.
Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for one hour.
Add rice and stir to combine.
Boil it again, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for another 15-20 minutes until the rice is done and has absorbed the liquid.
Stir every 5 minutes.
Transfer the chicken and rice to a serving dish, and sprinkle it with 1-2 tablespoons of rosewater.
Enjoy!

(Source: Machbus)

KARAK TEA

2 C water
2 black tea bags
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
2 C milk, evaporated or condensed (I used 1 can evaporated and 1 C cream)
Sugar to taste
Cinnamon, saffron, ginger or cloves, to taste

Boil the water in a saucepan with the black tea and cardamom.
Once it boils, add the milk and sugar.
If you are adding additional spices, add them in now.
Boil again and then simmer, and repeat two more times.
Pour the tea into a cup through a strainer.
Savor your delicious Qatari karak tea.

(Source: Karak Tea)

WARAK ENAB

1 jar grape leaves in vinegar brine, drained (about 40-50 leaves)

For filling:
1 1/2 C uncooked rice
2 tomatoes, chopped
5 green onions, chopped
1/2 C chopped parsley
2 tbsp chopped mint
1/2 C avocado oil
Salt & pepper

For cooking:
2 potatoes, sliced
2-3 large tomatoes, chopped
3/4 C avocado oil
3/4 C lemon juice
Salt & pepper

For the insides, mix together a fresh collection of uncooked rice, tomatoes, green onion, mint, parsley, avocado oil, salt and pepper.
Add potato slices to bottom of pot.
On your work surface, place a grape leaf backside up and place a small spoonful of filling by the stem end.
Begin to roll the leaf from the stem end.
After about one roll, fold the left and right sides in.
Continue rolling. You don’t need to make them super tight because the rice needs room to expand as it absorbs the liquid.
Stack the rolled grape leaves tightly together in the pot on top of the potatoes, making one neat layer on top of another.
Next, top with tomato slices.
Pour on the avocado oil and any juices at the bottom of the bowl that held the rice.
Cover with a plate to keep the grape leaves from floating and unrolling, then top off with a lid.
Simmer gently for about one hour. This will allow the potatoes at the bottom of the pot to get a nice crust.
Then add the lemon juice and cook an additional hour (or to taste)... you’re looking for the rice to be tender inside of the grape leaves… (cut one open to check).
Enjoy!

(Source: Warak Enab)

The verdict? The machbus was surprisingly bland! With all the spices, I would have thought it would be a lot more flavor. We had to add A LOT of salt to the dish to help bring out the flavors. The tea was good, but it was so much better as a iced tea. We thought the flavors came out a lot more when it was cold. I loved the stuffed gape leaves. This was by far the best part of the dish. I will say, though, these took quite some time to make and were very tedious. But I thought they were worth it. They had a very strong lemon flavor, so I would cut down the lemon juice next time (and there will be a next time!). Overall a decent meal.

Taste of Machbus (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 6