Mahmoos

 

 

If you are invited by a Saudi friend at his/her house and found the delicious aromas of appetizing spices wafting through the air, you will have to know that this special smell comes from a special kind of Middle Eastern traditional dishes. This dish is called “Mahmoos” which can only be made during specific special occasion in my city“Alqatif ”. This kind of simple meal was usually made by poor people long time ago because Mahmoos has a lack of major contents (onion , potato and seasons). You may ask your self now how that weird dish looks like. I’m going to introduce the magical recipe of that dish to you. You will need to follow every single step of this subject.

Ingredients: -
1.   4-6 Red Onions or Bermuda Onions.                             

   2.   4 Peed Potatoes

            3.   Corn Oil.                                                                            4.   2 Medium cooking pot.

              5.   Red meat, I prefer beef.                                                     6.   Grinded salt and pepper.

  7.   Spices.                                                                                8.    BASMATI Rice.

            9.    Aluminum foil and toothpick.                                          10.   A big wooden Spoon.  

 

• ·      I just want to make sure that you guys know the quantity of the rice and meat for specific number of people. I don’t usually measure the quantity because I got used to cooking different type of Arabic food. But the secret of this homemade dish is the onion and I’m really sure that you guys realized that there is a huge amount of onion. Yes, it should be like that and you will never taste the onion when the dish is ready to be eaten. I’ve chosen 4-6 onions for 2 people, therefore. 6-9 onions are enough for 3 people. You can choose the amount of rice and meat you want.

Step1: Put the meat into a medium cooking pot and let it boil for 2 hours (rotate the temperature to 7)

              Note: Beef is the best for this dish as a red meat instead lamb. 

   Step2: While you’re waiting the meat to boil, use a sharp medium knife and chop or cut the onions into small pieces.

Step3: Peel then cut 4 potatoes as shown in the picture below or you can create a beautiful shape of potato to make the dish more attractive.    

       

Step4: Use the second cooking pot and put a little bit Corn Oil into it as shown in the picture. or you can put butter instead of corn oil

Step5: When oil gets warm enough, put the chopped onions into the cooking pot.

Step 6: Keep scrolling until you the onion become black or dark brown as shown in the picture. (If you feel that the onion gets harsh, you will need to decrease the temperature to 6 and add little bit more Corn Oil.

Step7: Decrease the temperature to 5 then wait until the onion settle down. When the meat is ready, take it out from the boiling water then put it in the cooking pot and mix it with the onion for 2 min until you find out that the meat is fresh from inside, not red. Next, put the seasons you choose to be in your dish including salt and pepper. Keep scrolling until the mean is saturated with seasons and onion. Then, add warm water and increase the temperature to 8. 

Note:

•        you will realize that the water will gain a black color that comes from the onion and the seasons.
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•          Don’t use sweet seasons. I usually use (seven seasons, Garlic powder, small cucumber pickles, cumin, Turmeric powder, salt and pepper). I you are not familiar with some of these seasons, you kind find them from Middle Eastern markets).
• 
   
•         You need to be a little bit more precise when you put the salt, because we don’t want the food to be salty or lack of salt.

    Step 8: cover the cooking pan and make the water to boil for 10-15 minutes, and then add the potato into the cooking pot until it becomes half stewed. (Check the potato every 5 minutes)

Step 9: While you’re checking the potato every 5 minutes, obtain a suitable amount of rice and clean it with water.

Note: Don’t buy any kind of rice, for me I prefer rice that called Basmati Rice, because the rice is thin and tall and have a good quality, which help not to make the rice too sticky like any different kind or rice. You can get Basmati Rice from any Middle Eastern market and this is how it looks like.

Step 10: Decrease the temperature and put the clean washed rice into the cooking pot and distribute the rice evenly inside the cooking pot so the rice will obtain a dark brown color from the contents.

Note: before you cover the cooking pot, you will need to check the level of water after distributing the rice inside the cooking pot, because the water’s level should be half cm above the rice. So you may need to reduce water or put more.

Step 11:

•       Use an aluminum foil to cover the to of the cooking pan, then put the pot cover on. And make sure it’s completely closed. Then, use a toothpick to breach the aluminum foil as shown in the picture.   
• Lower the temperature between 4-5 and wait exactly minutes.

Note: Do not open the pot while you’re waiting 25 minutes. If you open it during this period of time, you will ruin everything. So make sure to wait 25 minutes without opening the pot. During this time, the water is evaporating and all the flavors will be stuck in the rice.

 Step 12: after waiting 25 minutes, you can now open the pot and mix the rice with the meat a little bit. You will get the same results as shown below.