The Gulf and Arabia · Volume 59, The Tigris Fire, the Shrine Kitchen and the Table That Left
Harisa of Ashura
Najaf, Karbala, and the Shia towns
Illustration
- Time
- 2 hours
- Researched
- Researched from 44 sources in the brief
Noon Post describes harisa: wheat and meat in a large pot, stirred with the jafjir, the big slotted spoon, shared with neighbours, with the processions and with visitors through the month. The Imam Husayn shrine's press office calls it one of the most prominent dishes of Ashura. The Assyrian table has a hareesa of its own, of wheat and chicken or beef, for holidays; no Assyrian cook is heard here. The Baghdadi Jewish hraisa is a third dish, not confirmed.
As tradition built it
Serves 6 at home, about 2 hours once the wheat has soaked; at Ashura, a cauldron for the street.
Ingredients
- 450g peeled wheat, soaked ahead
- 450g lamb or chicken on the bone, lean
- 2.75 litres water
- ½ tsp salt
- for garnish fat or ghee, to finish
- for garnish cinnamon, to finish, in some pots
Method
- Put the soaked wheat and the lamb or chicken on the bone in a large pot with the water, which should cover them well.
- Cook low for hours, stirring with the jafjir, until the wheat has broken down and the meat has shredded into it and the pot is a single thick porridge.
- Beat it at the end so it is smooth, salt it, and serve it with melted fat or ghee poured over, and cinnamon in some pots.
What a modern chef changes
The same porridge, with its texture controlled
Rung 4
Method
- Cook the wheat and the meat sealed in a low oven, 120 degrees Celsius for 6 hours, which gives the long unattended cook without a wood fire and without scorching.
- Pull the meat from the bones and beat it back into the wheat with a paddle until it is smooth.
- Finish with brown butter in place of plain fat, and cinnamon where the house uses it.
- Make more than you need. It is a dish for giving.