Madghoot
Saudi Arabia's pressure-cooked rice and lamb: bone-in shoulder marinated in baharat and dried lime, cooked fast with onion, basmati and stock.
Overview
The fast Saudi cousin of mandi, made when you want kabsa-deep flavour but the day doesn't have three hours in it for the meat to cook. You give bone-in lamb a quick wet marinade of crushed tomato, baharat, dried lime, garlic and yogurt (the yogurt tenderises while the spice mix works in), then it goes into a pressure cooker with onion and stock for thirty minutes under pressure, which is what a slow oven would otherwise do in three hours. The cooking liquid gets strained out (it is the dish's stock), basmati cooks absorption-style in it for twelve to fifteen minutes, and the lamb returns on top to rest while the rice steams through. Served straight from the pot with sahawiq (the chilli-coriander relish that shows up on every Khaleeji table) and salata on the side. Weeknight kabsa, basically.
Ingredients
Lamb
- 1.2 kg bone-in lamb shoulder (cut into 4-6 large chunks)
- 2 tablespoons Baharat (or 1 tsp each: ground cumin, coriander, black pepper, allspice, cinnamon)
- 4 garlic cloves (crushed)
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- 2 dried black limes (loomi, pierced; whole)
- 3 tablespoons natural yogurt
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Cooking
- 2 onions (large, sliced)
- 1 (400 g) tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cardamom pods (bruised)
- 1.2 litres hot water (or stock)
Rice
- 500 g basmati rice (rinsed and soaked 20 minutes, drained)
- 1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
- 1 large pinch saffron threads (bloomed in 2 tablespoons hot water)
- 3 tablespoons sliced almonds
- 40 g pine nuts (toasted, optional)
Method
Stage 1 - Marinate
- Mix baharat, garlic, tomato puree, yogurt, salt in a bowl. Coat the lamb; refrigerate 1 hour.
Stage 2 - Brown
- Heat the oil in a pressure cooker (sauté mode).
- Brown the lamb hard on all sides, 3-4 minutes per side. Set aside.
Stage 3 - Pressure-cook
- In the same cooker, soften the onion 6-7 minutes.
- Add tomatoes, dried limes, cinnamon and cardamom.
- Return the lamb. Pour in the hot water.
- Close the lid; pressure cook high 30 minutes.
- Natural release 10 minutes; remaining steam release.
Stage 4 - Separate
- Lift the lamb out onto a plate (keep warm).
- Strain the cooking liquid into a measuring jug; you need 800 ml. Top up with hot water if short.
Stage 5 - Cook the rice
- Return 800 ml of strained liquid to the cooker (no pressure). Add the drained rice, salt and saffron-water.
- Bring to a boil; cover; reduce to lowest; cook 12-15 minutes until the liquid is absorbed.
Stage 6 - Combine and rest
- Lay the lamb pieces on top of the rice.
- Cover; rest off heat 10 minutes.
Stage 7 - Serve
- Tip onto a wide platter, rice first, lamb on top.
- Scatter toasted almonds and pine nuts if using.
- Serve with sahawiq, yogurt and lemon wedges.
Notes
- No pressure cooker? Use a heavy lidded pot; 2 hours simmering for the lamb, then the same rice step. Identical result, longer wait.
- Dried lime / loomi: The signature flavour. Pierce them; whole limes infuse without falling apart. Available from any Middle Eastern shop.
- Strain and skim: The cooking liquid will have a layer of fat. Strain, then skim the surface fat before pouring back over the rice; otherwise it floods the rice.
Storage
- Refrigerate 3 days. Reheat covered with a splash of water.
- Freezes 2 months.
Recipes mentioned here
Kabsa
Saudi Arabia's national dish, the one platter you'll meet at almost every gathering from family lunch through wedding banquet. You brown chicken pieces or lamb shoulder hard in a heavy pot, then build a base of onion, garlic and ginger softened in the same fat, with tomato and a spoonful of baharat (or a dedicated kabsa spice mix) blooming until the kitchen fills with cardamom and cinnamon. The protein simmers in tomato and stock until it's tender and pulling away from the bone, then long-grain rice goes in to cook absorption-style in the same liquid, drinking up every layer of flavour the broth carries. You finish with almonds toasted in butter, raisins plumped briefly, and a fresh salsa of tomato, onion, chilli and parsley spooned on the side to cut the richness. Eaten communally from the centre platter, with hands or a long spoon.
Mandi
Lamb shoulder is rubbed with a Yemeni spice mix (hawaij), browned, then steam-roasted at low heat for two hours until it shreds. The cooking juices are strained off; long-grain rice cooks in them with saffron, raisins and a bay-and-cardamom aromatic mix. The cooked lamb is laid on top of the rice; a piece of glowing charcoal is placed in a small heatproof bowl on top of the rice, drizzled with oil, and the whole thing is covered tight for 5 minutes to absorb the smoke. Lift, serve.
More like this
Kabsa
Saudi Arabia's national dish, the one platter you'll meet at almost every gathering from family lunch through wedding banquet. You brown chicken pieces or lamb shoulder hard in a heavy pot, then build a base of onion, garlic and ginger softened in the same fat, with tomato and a spoonful of baharat (or a dedicated kabsa spice mix) blooming until the kitchen fills with cardamom and cinnamon. The protein simmers in tomato and stock until it's tender and pulling away from the bone, then long-grain rice goes in to cook absorption-style in the same liquid, drinking up every layer of flavour the broth carries. You finish with almonds toasted in butter, raisins plumped briefly, and a fresh salsa of tomato, onion, chilli and parsley spooned on the side to cut the richness. Eaten communally from the centre platter, with hands or a long spoon.
Mathloutha
The Saudi gathering platter built for the night when one cut of meat isn't enough. Three proteins share the same pot: lamb shoulder and beef chunks go in first with a kabsa-spiced tomato base for ninety minutes of slow simmer until they're meltingly tender, then chicken pieces drop in for the last thirty-five minutes (their cook time is shorter, so they go in later). The strained meat broth, deeply spiced from everything that has braised in it, becomes the cooking liquid for basmati scented with saffron and dried lime. At the end you arrange all three meats on top of the rice in the same platter and bring the whole thing to the centre of the table. The kind of dish you make for a wedding lunch, an Eid gathering, or the night the extended family arrives unannounced.
Domoda
Chicken thighs (or lamb) are browned, onions and tomato cooked down with garlic and a single whole chilli, then the meat simmers in stock until tender. A loose peanut paste is stirred in for the final 20 minutes, kept thin enough to ladle. Sweet potato or pumpkin softens in the sauce. A spoon of lime juice at the end balances the richness.
Quzi
A bone-in lamb shoulder rubs with baharat, dried lime, garlic and yogurt; sits overnight; roasts long and slow until the meat falls from the bone. Saffron rice cooks separately with onion, raisins and toasted nuts. Everything assembles on a wide platter, rice mounded under the lamb, sauce spooned over, almonds and pine nuts scattered.