When you think of Thanksgiving, you’re probably thinking of a richly decorated table with a huge turkey and all kinds of people around it, too, right? For us, it wasn’t turkey, it was kabsa! No, this fantastic rice dish with juicy lamb and super spicy rice is not a traditional Thanksgiving meal. But it’s a dish that really is celebrated in larger groups. In our house, it’s always served when someone comes home.
A Party of Lifter
As usual, a real feast requires a little preparation. But that doesn’t mean that the kabsa recipe is difficult at all. The components of the classic Kabsaho (or Kabsaho Kabseh) are an incredibly spicy basmati rice base covered with truly sweet lamb-like butter and many toasted nuts. For rice to be so tasty, the broth is taken from the lamb previously. But let’s start at the beginning.
The base of the Kabsa is a truly aromatic lamb broth. For this, the lamb – I use the leg for this – is cooked at a slow fire with a lot of spices for about three hours until it is really sweet like butter. Cardamom, garlic, ginger, tomato, cumin, curcumin, coriander, cinnamon, paprika… All your spice arsenal! The result is a truly amazing lamb broth, which is needed for rice, and a sweet, juicy lamb for coverage. Those are the two main ingredients. And as you’d guessed, the kitchen does most of the work for you.
Toast Nuts, Yogurt, and Probably the Easiest Tomato Sauce in the World
Once the lamb broth is made for kabsa, it is best to put the lamb in the oven to keep it warm or to light the grill of the oven so that the meat can acquire a delicious crust. The decision is yours. Meanwhile, prepare rice with broth. And while the rice is cooked, you take care of the garrisons. Kabsa is traditionally served with natural yogurt.
With its acidity and creaminess, yogurt offers a good balance to the rice plate, rather fatty and abundant. In my family, however, we also liked to serve a newly mixed tomato sauce. My mother just made mashed tomatoes with onions, olive oil, cider vinegar, and a little chili. Add salt and pepper to taste, and will probably have the simplest sauce in the world. The fruity taste of tomatoes goes fantastically well with kabsa and also with yogurt.
In case it was not enough, a small mezze with kabsa or kabseh is served. He usually accompanied with baba ghanoush, hummus, and pita bread. And that’s what I like so much about Levantine Kitchen: it mixes everything, and it always turns out a great dish.
Kabsa is not just a dish that is served on special occasions. It’s a dish that makes every occasion special. Enjoy your food.
Tip: There are also kabsa with chicken. And if you’re going to be a vegetarian, try it with vegetable broth, the spices we mentioned below, and vegetable chicken for coverage.
Kabsa Recipe
- Time of preparation: 30 minutes Min.
- Cooking time: 4 hours
- Standard Rations: 4 Persons
- Calories: 862.6
Ingredients
For the Kabsa
- 2 Onions
- 2 Garlic teeth
- 10 g Ginger
- 3 Tomatoes in a branch
- 1 kg Lamb leg (bone or chicken)
- 1.5 spoonfuls of tomato pasta
- 2 colher de cha comino
- 2 Curcuma tea spoon
- 1 Coriander seed tea spoon
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon paprika powder
- 1 Tea spoon Escamas de chili
- 1 Teaspoon Sal
- 1 pepper’s colher
- 2 Smell nail
- 4 Cardamom pods
- 2 Canela en brama
- 4 Sponsored Ghee (or butter)
- 300 g Basmati rice
- 30 g Almonds
- 30 g Anacardos
- 40 g Sultanas
- 15 g Cilantro
- 15 g Mint
- 15 g Parsley
For tomato sauce
- 4 Tomatoes in a branch
- 1 Onion
- 4 Olive oil spoon
- 2 Vinegar, Apple cider, spoon
- 1/2 teaspoon Escamas de chili
- Salt, pepper
To serve
- Yogurt (10%)
Preparation
- Pelar and slice an onion, garlic, and ginger.
- Wash and cut tomatoes into thick dice.
- Cover the lamb jars completely with water in a large pot, boiling and cooking slowly for about 15 minutes. Take off the foam that forms.
- Hang the water and reserve the lamb on a plate.
- In another pan, leave 3 spoons of ghee to a high fire and fry the onion and garlic for about 3 minutes. Then add ginger, tomato paste, and all other spices and cook it for about 2 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and fry them for about 3 minutes.
- Add the lamb and give it a brief on all sides, then cover it with 2 liters of water (or until the lamb is covered in water).
- Put the fire in half and cook the lamb slowly for about 2 or 3 hours with the lid half-open until the lamb is very tender.
- In the meantime, you can make the tomato sauce.
- Wash and cut tomatoes into quarters.
- Pelar and cut an onion in rooms.
- Crush the tomatoes with onions, olive oil, and vinegar with a hand blender and season with salt, pepper, and chili scales.
- Preheat the oven to 100 °C of upper/lower heat.
- Take the lamb out of the broth and keep it warm in the oven.
- Pass the broth through a strainer and pick up.
- Wash the basmati rice until the water runs out and slip it well.
- Leave 1 spoon of ghee in a high-fire pan.
- Add the rice and fry it briefly.
- Desglaze rice with 450 ml of lamb broth and cook slowly for 1 or 2 minutes. You can freeze the remaining broth and use it another time.
- Put the fire to a minimum and cover completely. Cook rice for about 20 minutes.
- Turn off the fire and let the rice rest for another 5 minutes.
- Pick almonds and cashews and toast them in a fat-free frying pan until they get golden.
- Wash and bite the coriander, mint, and parsley. Gently incorporate half of the herbs into the rice with half of the nuts and raisins.
- Share rice in a large bowl or individual dishes and cover it with the lamb, the remaining herbs, and the nuts.
- Serve kabsa with tomato sauce and yogurt.
