Jareesh

Ingredients

• Cracked wheat — soaked two hours400 g
• Lamb on the bone800 g
• Onions3
• Tomatoes3
• Yoghurt200 ml
• Baharat2 tsp
• Dried lime2
• Ghee80 g
• 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

   Soak the cracked wheat in cold water for two hours and rinse it.

   12 min

2. 2

   Fry one onion in ghee, add the meat and brown it.

   15 min

3. 3

   Add the tomatoes, baharat and pierced limes, cover with water and cook forty minutes.

   45 min

4. 4

   Add the wheat, top up with water two fingers above and cook ninety minutes on a low heat, stirring.

   95 min

5. 5

   Remove the bones, stir in the yoghurt and beat the porridge with a spoon or a mixer until creamy and uniform.

   12 min

6. 6

   Fry the remaining onion dark brown and spoon it over the jareesh with its oil.

   15 min

About the dish

The wheat is cooked until it collapses entirely — two hours or more. A finished jareesh should be uniform, with no grains distinguishable in it.

At the end it is beaten with a wooden spoon or a mixer. That is not a fancy: the mechanical work releases starch and the porridge turns creamy rather than grainy.

Dark-fried onion with its oil is obligatory on top. It is the only contrast in a dish of soft textures, and without it jareesh feels monotonous.

Worth knowing

• — Top up with boiling water, never cold. Cold water halts the breakdown and the wheat stays grainy.
• — Stir regularly: the porridge settles and catches faster than you would expect, especially towards the end.
• — By the next day jareesh sets almost to a dough. Let it down with broth and warm it, stirring.

Nutrition

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

Calories

580 kcal

Protein

34 g

Fat

26 g

Carbs

54 g

More from Saudi Arabia

• Kabsa — Rice with chicken in a spiced broth with dried lime and tomato. The centrepiece of the Saudi table.