Summary

Ingredients

• 2 large onions, chopped
• 3 tablespoon butter or ghee
• 1 tablespoon, heaped spice mixture (Baharat), homemade or ready-made
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 kg chicken or other meat
• 3 chilli pepper (s), dried
• 1 tablespoon ginger, fresh, grated or dried
• 5 large clove (s) garlic, finely chopped
• 2 large tomato (s), diced
• 3 lemon (s), dried (Loomi) or the juice 2 fresh lemons
• 5 cardamom pods
• 5 carnation (s)
• 2 cinnamon stick (s)
• 3 tablespoon salt
• 2 ½ cup chicken broth
• 2 cups basmati rice, soaked for about 15 minutes before cooking
• 3 tablespoon, heaped coriander greens, chopped
• 3 tablespoon, heaped parsley, chopped

For the spice mix: (Baharat)

• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 cinnamon stick (s)
• 1 tablespoon clove (s)
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 tablespoon paprika powder
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

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Instructions

1. Cover the meat in a saucepan with water and bring to the boil. After the foam has settled on the surface, take the pan off the stove and pour off the water and the foam. Briefly wash off the remaining foam from the meat and set aside.
2. Heat the butter and oil in the saucepan and then fry the chopped onions over medium heat until they are brown.
3. Add the ginger, the finely chopped garlic and the chopped chillies and fry for 2 minutes. Add the baharat and turmeric, mix well and leave in the pot for another minute.
4. Then put the meat back into the pot along with the chopped tomatoes, loomi, cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, cloves and salt. Pour the broth over everything and mix well.
5. It is important to pierce the Loomi with the tip of a knife so that the cooking liquid can penetrate fully and tickle out the taste. After cooking, the Loomi can also be eaten, although that is a matter of taste.
6. Bring everything to the boil and then lower the temperature. Put the lid on and let everything simmer for an hour.
7. After an hour, remove the lid, fish out the cinnamon sticks, add the chopped herbs and the watered rice and stir everything well.
8. Bring to the boil again, then reduce the temperature again and simmer with the lid on again for 15-20 minutes until the rice has absorbed all of the liquid and is soft.
9. Ideally, the rice should be dry at the end and only slightly stick together.
10. If you want, you can take out the larger pieces of meat and drape them on a rice bed on the plates. I prefer to cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and leave everything mixed together so that each spoon covers the full range of flavors.
11. For the Baharat spice mixture, carefully roast all the spices except the paprika powder and nutmeg in a small pan without fat over medium heat for about 4 minutes. Stir well again and again so that nothing burns!
12. Turn all the spices, including paprika powder and nutmeg, through the spice grinder and then mix the powder again well.
13. The finished Baharat is best kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
14. Machboos is a traditional rice dish with meat (chicken, beef, lamb, fish) from the Arabian Gulf, which is strongly reminiscent of Indian Biryiani. It`s actually very simple to prepare and only takes a single large saucepan, which makes washing up later easier, but the amount of different spices can seem daunting at first, but the result is mind-boggling!
15. Loomi are small dried Arabic lemons that give a soup, brew or stew a wonderfully fine citrus taste. Unfortunately, they are rarely found in Germany, but some Arab shops or spice specialists still have them. They can be replaced with fresh lemon juice.