Iraqi cuisine

[Jannah]

Maskuf Recipe


Ingredients:

One trout fish, or fish of your choice.

1.3 pound (1/2 kilo) tomato.

2 white onions.

2 table spoons oil. I usually use extra light olive oil for cooking.

Salt, black pepper or spices of your choice.


Instructions:

Cut fish lengthwise from its back without removing the skin or the scales. Clean its inside. Wash fish with water. Then, rub the fish with salt (both sides).

Start a fire at your campsite, riverside or backyard using wood sticks. Make sure the fire continues to flame. Measure wood stakes to be the length of the BBQ grilling stakes. Insert these wood stakes into the soil, one-foot away from the flames on the downwind side. This allows the flames to lick at the fish.

Skewer the fish onto two woods stakes between the skin and meat. Make sure its inside faces the flames.

Heat oil in a frying pan. Chop onions very thin and add them to the pan. Cut tomato into small pieces and add them to the onion. Add salt and black pepper to the mix. Cook for 10 minutes or until you have a thick sauce mixture in the frying pan.

Remove the fish once it's well cooked. Put it on a tray or plate. Brush the sauce on its inside.


Variations:

You could serve the fish without the sauce.

You could brush the fish interior with tomato sauce before cooking it.

You could soak tamarind in small amount of water. Leave it until it becomes as thick as a tomato sauce. Cover the fish interior with the thick sauce before cooking it. You could buy tamarind from any Oriental, Persian or Middle-Eastern shops at your residence area.


If you go fishing or camping by a riverside, then this is a good recipe to make. Enjoy.

http://fayrouz.blogspot.com/2004_04_...z_archive.html

[Jannah]

Iraqi Biryani (as served in Amman, Jordan)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biryani

[Edited by Jannah on 14th April 2006 at 03:50]

[Jannah]

http://www.iraqicookbook.com/contents/intro/main.html

[HOUDA-K]

Didn’t know Biyrani was an Iraqi dish.

[Jannah]

Yeah my x boyfriend used to rant about how they stole the recipe!!! But when I was with him I discovered a lot of what I'd thought of as Indian is also eaten in Iraq! There is more I just have to fine them, long time since I've eaten a lot of this stuff. Al Khiyal can you help, while looking I discovered there isn't many Iraqi recipes in english, plus I came across a lot of rascist stuff

Oh especially interested in the omelette with meat and potatoes, could only find one with spinach! Makhalima!

[Al-khiyal]

Masgouf is Iraq’s national dish. It's traditionally made over an open fire (and the experts will argue that the wood from the pomegranate tree is the only wood that should be used), using fish freshly caught from the Tigris (I once posted about it here). 'Real' masgouf is made with shabbut, a species of carp that isn't found in the west, but you can make it using salmon as a substitute:

To prepare masgouf with salmon under the grill: clean and scale the fish and slit and open it out from the back, so that you can open it out flat.

Brush the fish with mild extra virgin olive oil and season with salt. Lay the whole fish skin side up, on a large shallow dish (laying it on foil makes turning it over easier). Put it under the preheated grill and cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the skin is crispy. Then turn the fish over and cook the flesh side for about 2 minutes or until it's almost done.

Now sprinkle the fish with the juice of 1 lemon and cover it with a layer of diced ripe firm tomatoes — about 4 or 5 will do. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and continue to cook under the grill until the tomatoes are hot and the fish is done. You can serve it with mango chutney or pickled cucumbers.

A 2003 radio interview with one of Baghdad's most celebrated masgouf chefs, Hamid Shakir Hussein, during which he talks a little about preparing the dish outdoors is here. A few other Iraqi recipes are here

[liberte]

Yum. Sounds delicious. Really lovely picture of pommegranete tree and birds as well, Al Khiyal.