Mansaaf (Spiced Lamb)
"While living abroad, I learned some wonderful dishes. This is one of them, my friend Widaad taught me. It's usually cooked with a dry yogurt that's formed into hard balls, and needs an all night soaking to soften, but since we can't get those here in the states, I've improvised for the yogurt sauce. It's still good, but if you ever visit Jordan, do try it the traditional way. It's wonderful."
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photo by rawd.nimer
- Ready In:
- 2hrs 20mins
- Ingredients:
- 13
- Serves:
-
6
ingredients
-
Main
- 3 lbs lamb shoulder, on the bone cut into 6 even sized pieces (this is preferred but if you can't get it, 6 large pieces of lamb will do)
- water
- salt and pepper
- 1⁄4 cup clarified butter
- 1⁄4 cup pine nuts (optional)
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 piece cinnamon or 1 piece cassia
-
Laban Mutboukh (cooked yogurt)
- 2 cups full fat yogurt (skim and fat free wont work, they'll come out too thin)
- 1 egg white, beaten till frothy
- 2 teaspoons cornflour
- 1 teaspoon salt
directions
- Place lamb in a large pan and just cover with water.
- Bring to boil slowly, skimming off froth (this is blood and wont taste good if left in).
- When clean and boiling, add salt and pepper as desired, cover and simmer about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat butter in a skillet, and add snoober nuts, sautéing till golden.
- Remove, keeping butter in the pan as much as possible, and set nuts aside.
- Add onion to pan, frying gently until clear.
- Then stir in turmeric, allspice and cinnamon all at once and cook another 2 minutes only.
- Add onion mixture to the lamb.
- Meanwhile, prepare Laban mutboukh as follows:Place the yogurt in a heavy pan.
- Blend beaten egg whites with cornflour and add salt, stirring into the yogurt until well mixed.
- Place pan over medium heat, and stirring constantly, heat until it begins to boil.
- It's important to stir in the same direction, or so my grandma always said.
- Lower the heat and let simmer, uncovered about 3-5 minutes or until thickened.
- Set aside.
- When lamb as cooked about 1 hour, remove the lid, cooking until the liquid has been reduced so it's covering only half the lamb.
- Then add laban mutboukh, shaking the pan instead of stirring to blend.
- Simmer over low heat until lamb is tender and sauce is thickened.
- If it can't be helped, and sauce must be stirred, do so in one direction.
- Adjust salt and pepper as desired and remove cinnamon.
- Pile the mansaaf on a serving plate, sprinkling with the snoober nuts.
- Serve with hot cooked rice.
- Mansaaf is usually eaten over the rice with the sauce poured generously over the top.
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Reviews
-
Mensef is a very traditional Jordanian dish. The bedouins are known for their mensef. Traditionally mensef is made from "Jameed" which is a sort of solified yogurt. Made in rock form and has a very distinctive taste different from regular yogurt. Middle eastern grocers typically sell the "rock" form of jameed, which is a bit expensive, I opt for the liquidfied version that comes in a box, usually manufactured by Ziyad brand foods.Jameed is available in almost every middle eastern store here in the mid west. -
This is a good recipe. We wanted to try this one after eating Mansaf at a local restaurant recently. This version was delicious, but quite a bit different than the one we had before. I think as you mentioned it's because the yogurt is different. However, this still made a delicious dinner and was fun to make. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
alAmira
United States
Ok. I started learning to cook at age 8. My first teacher was my grandmother, who had been born in 1917 (I was born late in everyone's life), and who taught me the basics the old fashioned way. Hence I'm happy to say I can cook anything, but still I love searching as well as sharing new ideas, while retaining the old tried and true ways with food. As for interests I've too many to list here, but will say most are in the creativity genre. What else is there to say?
