Kuwaiti gereesh

Ingredients

• Cracked wheat500 g
• Chicken — in pieces1.2 kg
• Onions4
• Tomato paste3 tbsp
• Tomatoes3
• Baharat spice mix2 tbsp
• Dried lime loomi2
• Ghee100 g
• Cinnamon stick1
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Rinse the cracked wheat and soak it in cold water for an hour.

   15 min

2. 2

   Fry two of the onions in ghee until soft and add the baharat.

   12 min

3. 3

   Brown the chicken with the onion and add the tomatoes, tomato paste, cinnamon and pierced dried lime.

   18 min

4. 4

   Pour in two litres of water, salt it and cook forty minutes, until the chicken is tender.

   45 min

5. 5

   Lift out the chicken, tip the wheat into the broth and cook it an hour over a low heat.

   65 min

6. 6

   Mash the porridge until the grain breaks down into a uniform mass.

   15 min

7. 7

   Fry the remaining onion to deep brown, plate the porridge with the chicken and pour the onion and its butter over.

   18 min

About the dish

The cracked wheat is cooked until the grain collapses rather than merely softens. The finished dish should be uniform, with only the odd recognisable grain.

Stirring is constant after the first hour. The grain settles and catches, and a scorched bottom ruins the whole pot.

Dark fried onion with ghee on top is obligatory. It brings the sweetness and fat the porridge itself has none of.

Worth knowing

• — Pierce the dried lime with a knife before it goes in. Whole it gives only scent, and what is wanted is its sour bitterness.
• — Top up with hot water if the porridge thickens too soon. Cold water halts the breakdown and the grain stays whole.
• — Fry the finishing onion almost black. Golden gives sweetness but not the depth expected in this dish.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

680 kcal

Protein

42 g

Fat

26 g

Carbs

72 g

More from Kuwait

• Murabyan — Kuwaiti rice with prawns in a broth of their own shells, with dill and dried lime.
• Harees — Wheat and meat cooked down and beaten into one smooth mass. Ramadan food across the Gulf.
• Darabeel — Kuwaiti buns of date paste and cardamom, rolled into spirals.