Recipe from Jordan: Mansaf

When we first met Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella, she came bearing a slice of Red Velvet cake. I was in love.

Turns out, Lorraine happens to be one of Australia’s most popular food bloggers and the author of the just released book Not Quite Nigella: How I found happiness through butter.

Lorraine also loves to travel, so we asked if she could share one of her favourite recipes from her travels with us. Over to you Lorraine.

Hi everyone! It’s Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella here and I’m absolutely thrilled to be guest posting on Caz and Craig’s fabulous blog!

When they asked me a while back, I said yes straight away, then I pondered what to write about. After chatting to Caz, I decided to post a recipe related to travel because of course Caz, Craig and their girls are such great travellers and adventurous eaters.

I must admit that I worry a little about people who don’t have the urge to travel. I understand that travelling is something that is reliant on budgets and finances, and I separate the people that want to travel but can’t, versus the people that don’t care to travel at all.

You do occasionally meet people that think they can see all they need to from the comfort of their own armchair. That’s fine. But here are five main reasons why I love to travel:

1. To learn more about and meet people from different cultures.
2. To eat food from different countries.
3. To see views or vistas that I’ve never seen before.
4. To gain perspective on things.
5. To learn about words like Mansaf, Huckstering and Cattywampus!

I’m sort of half kidding about the last point, although when I was in America recently we both heard the terms Huckstering and Cattywampus. My husband and I looked at each other and immediately looked up the meaning. It turns out huckstering is promoting or selling something questionable, and cattywampus is a state of disarray, not to mention one of those words that you cannot get off your tongue and we’d find ourselves randomly shouting “cattywampus!” to each other for the rest of the trip.

Mansaf, a Traditional dish from Jordan

Which brings me to Mansaf, another new word for me and one that I learned on a recent trip to Jordan. (Here are the Best Things to do in Jordan in 7 days)

I love visiting the Middle East – it’s so different in sensibility to anywhere else in the world, and the people in Jordan and other parts of the Middle East that I’ve visited, like Oman and Dubai, are among the world’s friendliest.

Mansaf is the name of the national Jordanian dish, and it is a dish of meat (be it beef, lamb or chicken) cooked until fork-tender and coated in a rich yogurt sauce spiced with Baharat spices.

There is a finely ground mix of spices usually comprised of black pepper, cardamom, all spice, cassia or cinnamon, cloves, coriander, paprika and sometimes mint or rose petals.

Baharat is actually the Arabic word for spices and versions vary somewhat between areas, but the mainstay to all Baharat spice mixes is ground black pepper. Baharat is used to spice meat and fish and imparts a heady, harmonious mix of spices to the meat of your choice.

Mansaf Recipe

An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella:

• 750g/1.65 lbs. beef, lamb diced or chicken in pieces
• 2 cups rice
• 1/3 cup slivered almonds or pine nuts, toasted
• 4 tablespoons ground almonds
• 1 tablespoon Baharat spices
• 400ml/14.1 fl. ozs. natural yogurt
• 1 egg, beaten
• salt and pepper
• 1 large round of pita  bread
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley and 1/4 pomegranate

The Method:

1. In a pot, boil the meat in enough salted water to cover it for two hours. Or I use a pressure cooker on medium strength for 30 minutes to cook the meat.

2. Meanwhile, cook the rice according to directions.

3. When the meat has about half an hour to go, heat a dry frypan on medium heat. Add the ground almonds and Baharat spices and stir, toasting both until they are aromatic. Then add the yogurt and stir in one direction – I was told not to change directions or it will curdle. Add the egg and stir it through.

4. Drain the meat from the water – it should be very tender. Stir it through the yogurt mix and coat the pieces. Season with salt and ground pepper.

5. Place a piece of pita bread on a plate.

6. Top with rice and then the yogurt beef. Top with the toasted nuts and chop the parsley and add on top of this along with the pomegranate seeds.

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Why do you travel and what’s your favourite part of travelling?