The Gulf and Arabia · Volume 06, The Khaleeji Pearling and Bedouin Coast
Muhammar, with Fried Hamour
The Gulf coast
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 30 minutes
- Researched
- 3 sources cited
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Sweetened, spiced rice paired with fried fish, one of the coast's oldest and most characteristic combinations, needing nothing but rice, a sweetener and the day's catch.
As tradition built it
Serves 4 to 6. Around 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 kg rice
- 500 g sugar
- 10 g ground cardamom
- 50 g butter or ghee
- 120 g date molasses (dibs)
- 10 g ground cinnamon
- 1 litre water
- 2 kg, cut into thick slices hamour (grouper) fillets, or a similar firm white fish
- to taste onion, garlic, coriander, ginger and cumin, for the fish paste
Method
- Boil the rice uncovered in the water for around 8 minutes, then drain while still hot.
- Toss the hot, drained rice immediately with the butter or ghee, the sugar, or honey, cardamom, cinnamon and date molasses, so the grains take on a deep amber colour and sweetness while they are still steaming.
- Season the fish with a paste of onion, garlic, coriander, ginger and cumin, and fry until golden.
- Serve the sweetened rice alongside the fried fish.
Notes
Hamour is described across this chapter's sourcing as the Gulf's most consistently available and prized food fish, growing from under a kilogram to twenty, with specimens recorded to fifty; no UK source found in this chapter's research confirmed true hamour availability in Britain, and Red Sea-sourced grouper from specialist fishmongers is the closest honest substitute, named as a substitute rather than the article itself.
What a modern chef changes
The same sweetness, controlled rather than eyeballed
Method
- Reduce the date molasses separately to a syrup of a fixed sugar concentration, measured with a refractometer if one is to hand, so the finished rice's sweetness is consistent rather than dependent on how hot the rice happened to be when the sugar hit it.
- Poach the grouper sous vide at 52°C for a translucent, barely-set texture, then flash-fry only the surface for colour and crust, rather than frying it through and risking dry flesh.
- Finish the rice with a few drops of orange-blossom or rosewater, off the heat, for a lifted aromatic note behind the cardamom and cinnamon.