Mombar

Stuffed with rice rather than meat, boiled first and then deep-fried, so the casing blisters.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

the casings

• 2 m wide sheep or beef casing
• 4 tablespoons flour, for cleaning
• 4 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons salt

the filling

• 400 g short-grain rice, rinsed and soaked
• 2 onions, very finely chopped
• 3 tomatoes, finely chopped
• a large bunch of parsley, chopped
• a handful of dill, chopped
• 3 tablespoons tomato purée
• 2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 4 tablespoons ghee, melted
• 2 teaspoons salt
• black pepper

to boil and fry

• 2 bay leaves
• 1 onion, halved
• 1 litre sunflower oil

Method

1. IT IS STUFFED WITH RICE RATHER THAN MEAT, boiled first and then deep-fried. Three things, and each one matters. The filling is raw rice with onion, tomato and a great deal of herb -- no mince at all, which is what separates it from every other fresh sausage. It is then simmered for an hour so the rice cooks and swells inside the casing. And only then is it deep-fried, which blisters and crisps the casing into something shatteringly crunchy around a soft interior. Fried without boiling, the rice is raw and the casing bursts; boiled and not fried, it is a pale soft sausage with none of the texture it is eaten for.
2. THE CASINGS ARE FILLED ONLY HALF FULL. Raw rice roughly doubles. A tightly packed casing splits along its length in the first twenty minutes of boiling and the filling empties into the pot. Half full looks far too slack and is right.
3. THEY ARE TIED OFF IN LENGTHS AND PRICKED BEFORE BOILING. Twenty centimetres or so, tied at both ends, and pricked two or three times with a needle. The pricking lets steam out as the rice swells; unpricked, even a half-filled casing can burst.
4. THE CASINGS ARE CLEANED WITH FLOUR, VINEGAR AND SALT, AND THAT IS NOT OPTIONAL. Rubbed inside and out with flour, then with coarse salt, then soaked in vinegar water, then rinsed through several times until the water runs clear and there is no smell. Bought casings still need this. It is tedious and it is the difference between a good dish and an inedible one.
5. THEY ARE BOILED GENTLY, NOT AT A ROLLING BOIL. A bare simmer with bay and onion, an hour. A hard boil bursts them however carefully they were filled.
6. THEY ARE DRIED THOROUGHLY BEFORE THEY GO IN THE OIL. Lifted out, drained and patted dry, and ideally left twenty minutes. Wet sausages in hot oil spit violently and the casing steams instead of crisping.
7. The casings turned inside out and rubbed with the FLOUR, then the SALT, then soaked in water with the VINEGAR 30 MINUTES, then RINSED THROUGH several times until the water runs clear and there is NO SMELL.
8. The RAW soaked rice, onions, tomatoes, parsley, dill, purée, allspice, cumin, melted ghee and seasoning mixed.
9. The casings filled only HALF FULL, tied off in lengths of about 20 cm, and PRICKED 2 or 3 times each with a needle.
10. Lowered into water with the bay and halved onion and simmered GENTLY -- never a rolling boil -- 1 HOUR.
11. Lifted out, drained and PATTED DRY, then left 20 MINUTES.
12. The oil heated to 180°C and the lengths DEEP-FRIED SUBMERGED, a few at a time, 4 to 5 MINUTES until the casing is blistered and deep brown.
13. TESTED: the casing should shatter and the rice inside be soft and fully cooked. Burst lengths mean they were overfilled or not pricked.
14. Cut into pieces and served hot with lemon.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes