Recipe
Molokhia with Rice and Vermicelli
ملوخية
The dish the whole table waits for. Dried mallow simmered in lamb stock with garlic and coriander, served beside rice fried through with vermicelli.
- 105 minutes
- Serves 6
Ingredients
- 200 g dried mallow leaves
- 1 kg lamb shoulder on the bone, or 1 chicken, jointed
- 2 tbsp Jannat seven spice blend
- 1 head of garlic, peeled and crushed
- 1 large bunch coriander, finely chopped
- 4 tbsp Jannat extra virgin olive oil
- Juice of 1 lemon, plus more to serve
- 300 g long-grain rice
- 60 g Jannat vermicelli nests, crushed
- Salt
- Jannat large flatbread, to serve
Method
Cover the meat with cold water, bring it to the boil and skim carefully until the surface runs clear. Add a tablespoon of the seven spice and a good pinch of salt, then simmer covered for an hour, until the meat gives. Lift it out, pull it into large pieces, and keep the stock — you want about a litre and a half, and it should already taste seasoned on its own.
Soak the dried mallow in warm water for ten minutes, then drain it well.
Bring the stock back to a simmer, add the mallow, and cook it for twenty minutes at a bare tremble. It must not boil hard. Mallow separates, and once it has separated nothing brings it back.
In a small pan, fry the garlic and coriander in the olive oil until the garlic is blond and the whole kitchen smells of it. Tip the panful into the pot, add the lemon juice and the rest of the seven spice, and simmer five minutes more. Return the meat.
For the rice, fry the crushed vermicelli in a little oil until it is deep gold, add the rinsed rice and 600 ml of water, and cook covered for fifteen minutes. Rest it off the heat for ten before forking it through.
Serve the molokhia in a bowl beside the rice, with flatbread and more lemon.
