Okay, so what am I doing??
I have a condition where I like to make things over-complicated. Self-diagnosed, but I think that most people in my life would agree. Shout out to my patient husband who now must consume strange and unfamiliar cuisines and even worse, doggedly visit dozens if not thousands of grocery stores around Tirana in order to find the unorthodox and rare ingredients needed for me to complete this again (self-imposed) challenge over the next few years. For payment, he will get fed. For I have decided, I’d like to learn to cook something from every country in the world. 197 and counting, baby.
This project is a beautiful messy combination of all the things I love: cooking, travel, geography, nonsensical lists, feeding people I love, and written documentation. This won’t be a recipe blog, but I will link to all the recipes that I use to cobble together my meal. Generally, the meal will subsist of a main ‘dish’, and then as many sides and accompaniments as I can muster up. Sometimes, it will be the countries national dish. However, since some countries having genuinely insane national dishes (looking at you Palau, fruit bat soup?? Seriously??), or include ingredients that I cannot legitimately access while in Albania, I’ll mix it up to what sounds good to me. Because I have control. So, speaking of not having all the ingredients I should…
What am I cooking today?
I’ve got a jar that tells me what to eat. I’ve written down all the countries (with their basic flavor & ingredient profiles on the back) and put them in a giant glass jar that used to contain Albanian sheep yogurt. When we’re feeling adventurous, we pull a few options out, and et voila, dinner is decided. And for the very first and momentous country, ’tis Bahrain.
Already, I have to apologize to Bahrain. I rushed into this, and did it dirty by not waiting until I had 2 essential ingredients: loomi (Persian dried limes) and rosewater. I also did not toast my spices when I made my baharat seasoning. Sorry. If I actually make it through all 197 countries, I promise I will remake this Machboos the right way; a cherished friend has already brought me some loomi from the US, and an Indian grocery recently opened up in Tirana and a realm of incredible possibilities (including rosewater) is now open to me. To sub in for the loomi, I used lime zest and extra lime juice.
That being said, I still started this dinner off with total confidence, because all Middle Eastern food is absolutely incredible. And it continues to be true.
Tell me more about Machboos:
For the shining star of a Bahraini entree, it was super easy to pick: Machboos is beloved and has tons of variations around the Levant and towards the East. It’s a meat and rice dish that’s similar to a biryani, both in depth and complexity of layered flavors, and the physical way the dish is cooked. Basically, you toast the spices, sear the protein, saute the aromatics, and then add them all together in a big heavy bottom pot (my blue IKEA dutch oven will be a frequent participant in these challenges). After the meat cooks for a while, then you add soaked basmati rice on top, put it to a simmer, and wait until the rice finishes. For protein, I had the choice of fish or lamb, but happily for my wallet, chicken is the most traditional machboos, so bawk bawk. 🐔
For the machboos, the main recipe I worked off was this recipe by Daring Gourmet and then little glances here and there at this one by Foreign Fork. Both recipes are really approachable while still staying super authentic!
Now, we know that a good meal is really the sum of its parts. Imagine a turkey dinner with only turkey, when we’re all there for the mashed potatoes and stuffing. I wouldn’t even show up. Machboos is actually one of those recipes where you could be content without any extras, but it always helps. After a lil research, I went with a cucumber raita for some crunchy creamy sauce, plus a raita is good with everything always. Recipe for the raita here.
And then, because vegetables are healthy and this was just a chicken and rice dinner, we added an Arabic salad. There are thousands of recipes online, but my go to is something like this one. Even though many chopped salads in the Middle East are just same word, different fonts, I do always think it’s worth looking up that specific region to see if there are any variations, because sometimes those changes are mind blowing. I remember one from Reem Kassis that uses whole lemons chopped up, peel and all, and that is wild. But delicious.
Is Bahraini food worth making?
Yes, absolutely! The main obstacle for most people is going to be the array of spices needed for the baharat seasoning (coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, paprika, cinnamon, cardamom pods, whole cloves, nutmeg, ginger). But, that’s easily manuevered around by getting a pre-made baharat spice. Other than that, everything is pretty step by step, and is a good starting point into Gulf cooking. Also, since it’s chicken and rice, and it’s spiced not spice, it’s safe for people with fragile palates too.
Since I’ve made similar dishes and I’m pretty familiar with Middle Eastern cooking, this was an easy one for me to start with. It was fun to learn a little bit more about this itty-bitty island country. It’s one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and used to be known for its pearl fisheries before the oil industry took over. This also has inspired me to focus more on multitasking and learning as I cook, so I think going forward I’ll try to find podcasts or YouTube videos about the country, and I’ll link them as I go. 🇧🇭
In conclusion, yee haw! 1 done, 196 to go.
OVERALL DELICIOUSNESS:
ACCESSIBILITY TO GATHER INGREDIENTS & MAKE:
JADEN’S RATING: