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Hrisseh

Cooked until it pours from the spoon like thick cream, with no grain left whole.

Chicken, Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, lamb.

Ingredients

Method

  1. IT IS COOKED UNTIL IT POURS FROM THE SPOON LIKE THICK CREAM, WITH NO GRAIN LEFT WHOLE. Four or five hours, stirred, with water added as it thickens, until the wheat has gone completely -- not softened, gone, broken down into the liquid -- and the meat has dissolved into threads too fine to find. The finished pot is smooth, pale and pourable, somewhere between a soup and a porridge, and a spoonful lifted and tipped runs off in a sheet. Stopped at three hours it is a wheat and chicken stew with recognisable grains in it, which is a good dinner and is not this. There is no shortcut: it is time and stirring.
  2. IT IS NOT POUNDED OR BEATEN. Stirred, often, with a long wooden spoon, and the breakdown comes from the hours rather than from force. The related dishes that are beaten with a mallet end up stretchy and elastic; this one is smooth and flows, and working it hard would give the wrong texture entirely.
  3. THE WHEAT IS SOAKED OVERNIGHT AND COOKS WITH THE MEAT FROM THE START. Twelve hours in cold water. Then into the pot together, so the grain takes up the fat and gelatine over the whole long cook -- which is what lets it collapse into something creamy rather than merely soft.
  4. THE BONES COME OUT AT ABOUT TWO HOURS AND THE MEAT GOES BACK. Fished out carefully once the meat is falling off. A bone fragment in a dish cooked to a smooth cream is both a hazard and impossible to find later.
  5. IT IS TOPPED UP WITH HOT WATER, NEVER COLD. It thickens steadily and needs loosening four or five times. Cold water drops the temperature and stalls the breakdown; boiling water from a kettle keeps it moving.
  6. THE BUTTER IS BROWNED WITH CINNAMON AND POURED OVER AT THE END. A hundred and fifty grams taken to nut-brown with two teaspoons of cinnamon stirred in off the heat, poured over the flattened surface so it pools. Stirred in, it makes the whole pot greasy; on top, it is the first thing in every spoonful.
  7. IT IS SALTED LATE. The pot reduces for hours and salt added early concentrates with it. Salted at the two-hour mark, corrected at the end.
  8. The wheat SOAKED 12 HOURS in cold water, then drained.
  9. The chicken or lamb put in a large heavy pot with the water, onions and cinnamon stick. Brought to the boil and SKIMMED.
  10. The drained wheat added and simmered, lid on, stirring often.
  11. Salted at the 2 HOUR mark. The BONES removed and the meat returned.
  12. Cooked on for 4 to 5 HOURS IN TOTAL, stirred often and topped up with HOT water 4 or 5 times.
  13. Cooked until NO GRAIN IS LEFT WHOLE and the mixture is smooth and pourable.
  14. The ground allspice, pepper and remaining salt stirred in, and the surface flattened in a wide dish.
  15. The butter browned to NUT-BROWN, the ground cinnamon stirred in off the heat, and poured over so it POOLS.
  16. TESTED: a spoonful tipped should run off in a SHEET. If grains are visible it is not finished.
  17. Served hot in bowls.

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 Lebanon · All recipes