February 25th is the national day of Kuwait and we would like to share a recipe of the national dish of Kuwait – “Machboos Laham” with you.
Machboos consists of three parts; the meat (traditionally made with either lamb or chicken) well cooked and tender, the rice which is cooked with the meat’s stock, and stuffing which is ironically not stuffed into anything and consists of split beans, raisins and onion.
This recipe is made by our country chef from Kuwait: Fatemah who runs her own foodblog; Saffron pudding. Read more about her below the recipe.
Recipe: The national dish of Kuwait - Machboos Laham
Ingredients
The meat
- 1 kg lamb
- 2½ l water
- 1 small onion
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 1 tsp peppercorns
- ½ tsp cloves
- 5 pieces cardamom
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 pinch ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cumin
- salt
- pepper
- ¼ tsp saffron threads
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp oil
The rice
- 1 kg rice basmati
- 2 onions
- 75 g yellow split peas
- 75 g raisins
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 pinch ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp sugar
- ground cloves
- black pepper
Instructions
- Soak the raisins
- Preheat oven to 200°C (392°F). Cut the lamb into cubes. In a large pot, combine meat cubes with the water, all whole spices, salt and a small onion, quartered.
- Bring to boil. Once water has come to boil remove the froth that has come on top with a spoon. Cover and let cook over medium-low heat for 90 minutes. Meanwhile, make the stuffing.
- In a small saucepan put split peas, cover with water and add 1 tsp of salt. Over medium-high heat bring to boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 20 minutes, until peas are tender. Drain and set aside.
- Chop the remaining onions and sauté them in oil, until tender and golden brown.
- Reduce heat to medium-low. Add the cooked split peas and drained raisins. Add cinnamon, gloves, salt, sugar and black pepper. Continue to cook for a few more minutes until everything is well combined. Take off from heat and set aside.
- After 90 minutes drain the lamb cubes in a colander that is set over a large bowl. Save the stock and discard of the spices.
- Mix all the ground spices. (Taste the meat to see if it needs more salt.) Rub the dry in-gredients over the meat cubes. Arrange meat on an oven pan.
- Mix 1 tbsp of saffron water with 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp of the meat stock. Drizzle over meat, cover pan with aluminum foil and enter oven for 15 minutes while you prepare the rice.
- Wash and drain the rice several times, until water runs clear from the rice, cover with water and mix with 1 tsp salt.
- Drain rice from water. In a medium non-stick saucepan put rice, pour enough meat stock to cover the rice by 2 cm. Bring to boil over high heat, cover and reduce to medium-low. Cook until rice absorbs all the liquid and is cooked and fluffy – about 15-20 minutes.
- When it is time to serve, fold meat with stuffing and serve over rice. Drizzle with remain-ing saffron water.
About the Country Chef
Fatemah is a mom and housewife. She grew up in Kuwait. Fatemah is a foodie: she loves delicious and high quality food, and enjoys cooking, baking, trying new recipes from different countries and cuisines. She also loves food photography and aspires to be a food photographer one day. As part of that ambition she took an online photography course and then found herself taking pictures of the food that she makes and sharing those pictures with friends on Facebook along with the recipes. She reckoned she would start a food blog and that’s how her blog Saffron Pudding came to be.
Read more about IngredientMatcher’s Country Chefs in the Foodie section
Read more about national dishes and the ebook “National Dishes From Around The World”
Read more about other national dish recipes published on this blog
Thanks sharing
Awsome recipes
Thank you for being the ONLY one with the CORRECT recipe for Kuwaiti Machbous Lah’am….haven’t made it in years and want to teach my cook so your recipe brought it all back to me…many thanks.
Glad you like it! The recipe is made by Fatemah who is from Kuwait and runs the food blog Saffron Pudding
Hi. I grew up having this but with pieces of lamb with bone-in. Can you advise me on what the best cuts of lamb to use are if I want to use pieces with bones? Thanks!
Hi there Eman,
Perhaps Loin chops? They are usually quite expensive since they are one of the most tender pieces. However, since you are going to boil the meat for 90 minutes then I see no point in going for the most tender and pricier pieces.
Lamb cuts are not my speciality but maybe you can get some inspiration from this: https://medium.com/farmdrop/the-only-lamb-cuts-guide-youll-ever-need-how-to-choose-and-cook-your-cuts-29419edf875b or this: http://www.americanlamb.com/lamb-cutting-board/#loin-chop
Or you could send an email to Fatemah who wrote the recipe: fatemahalhusayni@gmail.com
Let me know what you tried and how it went!
Hi, I love this Recipe it is quite straight to the point! Thanks
But How can i get Cinnonmon in Nigeria Pls Help me.
Hi there! I moved back to the States from Kuwait and am missing the majboos from Freej Swella soo much! Does anyone have the recipe for that? Is this one similar to that? Also the recipe for their famous green red chili’s and tomato chutneys?
Does this taste the same as the Freej Swaleih majboos?? Or something similar??
Excellent recipe my first try making Laham machboos always made chicken with dakus