Emirati cuisine
Machboos
مجبوس
Rice with prawns or chicken on the bizar spice mix with dried lime. The staple of the Gulf.
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Total
- 75 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
Ingredients
- Prawns — large, peeled800 g
- Basmati rice500 g
- Onions3
- Tomatoes3
- Dried lime loomi3
- Bizar spice mix1 tbsp
- Turmeric2 tsp
- Garlic5 clove
- Ginger30 g
- Coriander40 g
- Green chilli2
- Ghee80 g
- Saltto 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
Rinse the rice until the water runs clear and soak it twenty minutes.
22 min
- 2
Fry the onion in ghee to a deep gold, fifteen minutes, and set a third aside.
17 min
- 3
Add the garlic, ginger, bizar and turmeric and warm them a minute, until fragrant.
3 min
- 4
Add the tomatoes and the pierced limes, pour in water at one and a half times the volume of the rice, and season.
8 min
- 5
Bring it up, add the rice, cover and cook fifteen minutes on a low heat.
18 min
- 6
Lay the prawns over the rice, cover and give it five more minutes; they cook in the steam.
7 min
- 7
Rest it ten minutes and scatter with the reserved onion, coriander and chilli.
12 min
About the dish
Bizar — the Emirati blend of turmeric, coriander, cumin and cinnamon — carries more turmeric than Saudi kabsa, and the rice comes out noticeably yellower.
Loomi, dried black lime, goes in whole and pierced. It gives the sour bitterness that separates Gulf cooking from Levantine.
The onion is caramelised dark at the start and some is kept back for serving. The top layer has to crunch — it is the only crisp element in the dish.
Worth knowing
- — The prawns go in at the very end. Boiled for fifteen minutes they turn rubbery and lose the point entirely.
- — Take the limes out before serving. In a bowl they look like an inexplicable black ball and are not meant to be eaten.
- — The same recipe is made with chicken — it goes in at the start and stews forty minutes before the rice.
Nutrition
Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.
- Calories
- 640 kcal
- Protein
- 42 g
- Fat
- 20 g
- Carbs
- 78 g
More from United Arab Emirates
- Luqaimat — Crisp balls of yeasted batter in date syrup. The Ramadan sweet of the Gulf.