KUWAIT

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Get out your passports, we're going to Kuwait!

Kuwait, officially called the "State of Kuwait," is roughly the size of New Jersey. It is settled in the Middle East on the coast of the Persian Gulf, bordered by Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

This is an Arab country with a population size of roughly 2.8 million people. Despite being so small, Kuwait is a prosperous nation. As of this year, it is the tenth wealthiest country in the world! It owes its wealth to its petroleum, which make up nearly 85% of export revenues, and 80% of government income.

Kuwait is a constitutional monarchy. This, according to royal.gov, is a form of government in which a king or queen acts as Head of State. The ability to make and pass legislation resides with an elected Parliament, not with the Monarch. 

Kuwait City

The capital is Kuwait City.

The official religion is Islam. Other religions practiced, however, are Christianity, Hinduism, and Parsi.

The people primarily speak Arabic, but English is also widely spoken.




About 75% of the Kuwaiti people over the age of 15 are overweight, making Kuwait the eighth fattest country in the world.

On November 12 2012, Kuwait celebrated its Constitution's 50th Anniversary with fireworks! With over 77,000 fireworks, the Guinness Book of World Records awarded Kuwait with "The largest fireworks display."

Last, but certainly not least, Kuwait has become famous for its camel races. But what makes these races infamous, is the fact that they are run by remote-controlled robot jockeys. We're not kidding.



World Human Rights organizations have consistently condemned human jockeys in camel racing, and so keeping its heritage, camel races still continue, but with robot jockeys. The race track has an area where the camel trainers drive small pick-up trucks from which they shout orders and use remotes to whip the camels using the robots.

This is real.



The country's national dish are machboos. Machboos is a rice dish cooked with meat-- traditionally lamb, but also chicken, beef, or fish.

For our recipe we used chicken, cauliflower in the place of basmati rice, and coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. We combined recipes from three websites: daringgourmet.com, yourabudhabiguide.com, and whats4eats.com.

This is an E meal!!!!
(From Lisa: Using a whole chicken (dark meat) may have pushed this closer to an S meal.  Use chicken breasts only to keep it an E.  From the THM book, p. 313, one of the crockpot chicken recipes uses breasts, onions and cauliflower)

Warning: This recipe calls for a lot of spices! We are a spice-loving family and so we were not daunted by this. The Middle East is a spice-filled world-- what even are bland meals?

If you've read all these Kuwaiti facts and your heart is yearning to get a taste of the culture, have no fear! We're going to take you on our machboos journey!

Ingredients: 

1 whole chicken-- cut up

Not pictured: nutmeg

2 onions-- chopped
5 large garlic cloves-- minced
1 Tbs ginger-- grated or chopped
1 jalapeno pepper-- seeded and chopped
2 Tbs coconut oil
1 head cauliflower
1 tsp tumeric
pinch of salt
14 oz diced tomatoes-- drained
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cinnamon stick
5 cardamon seeds
3 Tbs cilantro
2 Tbs parsley

For the baharat spice:

Whole spices:
1 Tbs. black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp whole cloves
1/4 tsp green cardamon seeds (about 4-5)

Powdered spices:
1 Tbs paprika
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 Tbs ground cumin


There are many variations to how machboos are prepared. Because of this, I was very frantic and stressed on how we were going to pull this meal off. I hadn't prepared much for this meal, and I am a girl who loves preparation, steps to follow, and order, which this night definitely didn't have! But nevertheless, my mom swooped in and wrote the recipe effortlessly, and the meal turned out to be much easier than I expected.

Cook time? Approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.


Steps:

First, make the baharat spice. This will be used much later in the recipe.

Put whole spices in skillet over medium/high heat. Cook, tossing frequently to prevent scorching, about 3-4 minutes.

Set aside to cool. When cool, combine with powdered spices in coffee grinder. Grind to powder.

Next! Place cut up chicken in 4 cups water with pinch of salt over high heat. 

(We used a whole chicken which we then proceeded to cut ourselves. We definitely recommend buying cut up chicken.) 

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove chicken and set aside.

Reserve 2 1/2 cups of liquid for later.

In large skillet, melt 1 Tbs coconut oil over medium/high heat. Sauté onions until browned and soft. 

Add garlic, ginger, and jalapeño. Sauté for 2 minutes. 

Transfer onion mixture to dutch oven (or other cooking pot). 

Add 1 Tbs of baharat spice, turmeric, chicken pieces, drained tomatoes, 1 cinnamon stick, 5 cardamon seeds, ground cloves, and reserved chicken stock. Stir to combine.

Bring to a boil. 

Reduce heat to low. Simmer 1 hour. 

After 45 minutes, add cilantro and parsley. Cook for remaining 15 minutes. 

While the chicken is cooking, cook the cauliflower. 

Chop up 1 head of cauliflower. Pulse in food processor until it reaches a fine, rice-like texture. 

Melt 1 Tbs. coconut oil in large skillet. Sauté cauliflower 10-15 minutes. 

Can you believe this isn't rice?!

Once chicken is cooked, remove cinnamon stick and 5 cardamon seeds (if you can find them) and discard. 

Serve chicken and sauce over cauliflower rice. 

Kaboom! Kuwaiti machboos! 

(Of course, after these photos were taken, we sloshed on as much chicken and sauce as we wanted. It got messy in the best possible way.)

Thoughts and Comments:

Madeline: This was the first time I had the cauliflower rice, and was completely surprised by it. It tasted just. like. rice. So crazy! The machboos were, wow, so amazingly flavorful. I had a cold while making this dish, and could STILL taste waves of spices from this meal. In Little Rock, Arkansas (our hometown) there are not many places where you can find Middle Eastern food, and so my tastebuds aren't BFFs with the Arabic flavors. That made this meal so much better. Thank you Kuwait for your great food!

Lisa:  The night we cooked this was my Mom's birthday.  She passed away this past December - just 5 short months ago - at the age of 87.  Mom LOVED to try new recipies so I felt this was a fitting way to celebrate her first birthday without us. Madeline even wore one of her aprons while cooking the machboos.  I too was not quite sure if I would like this recipe - at Disney World, my least favorite restaurant that we've eaten at is Marrakesh in Morocco at Epcot.  Blech!  I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this!  There was a hint of sweetness and several spices that blended into a flavor I've never experienced before!  And that cauliflower "rice" - WOW!  I want to make that all the time now.  It was excellent!  We had my sister Carol come over and she liked it too!  Hey Mikey!  She likes it!  (Those of you in your 50's will know what this means!)

The THM lifestyle gives you grace when you mess up or cheat.  Using a whole chicken probably made this closer to an S.  Live and learn.  I've lost 16 pounds in 9 weeks so even not doing THM perfectly, it has still worked for me!

Wearing my grandmother's apron

Here's some traditional Kuwaiti music. We listened to different Kuwaiti music as we ate and didn't resist the urge to dance a bit in our chairs.

Up Next: Chile! 

For all you "serious cookers," my mom insists on having the full list of steps to be posted without the pictures in between, to make it easier when actually cooking. After reading this post, we know you're just dying to cook machboos, right? Here are the steps again:

To make the baharat spice, put the whole spices (1 Tbs black peppercorns, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 tsp whole cloves, and 1/4 tsp green cardamon seeds) in skillet over medium/high heat.
Cook, tossing frequently to prevent scorching, 3-4 minutes.
Set aside to cool.
When cool, combine with 1 Tbs paprika, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1/2 Tbs cumin in coffee grinder.
Grind to a powder.

Place cut up chicken in 4 cups water with pinch of salt over high heat. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Remove chicken and set aside. Reserve 2 1/2 cups of liquid for later.

In large skillet, melt 1 Tbs coconut oil over medium/high heat. Sauté 2 chopped onions until browned and soft.
Add 5 large garlic cloves, 1 Tbs ginger, and 1 chopped jalapeño.  Stir to mix.
Transfer onion mixture to dutch oven (or other cooking pot).
Add in chicken pieces, 14 oz drained tomatoes, 1 cinnamon stick, 5 cardamon seeds, 1/8 tsp ground cloves, and 2 1/2 cups reserved chicken stock. Stir to combine.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 1 hour.
After 45 minutes, add cilantro and parsley, cook remaining 15 minutes.

Chop up 1 head of cauliflower. Pulse in food processor until it is a fine, rice-like texture.
Melt 1 Tbs coconut oil in large skillet and sauté cauliflower 10-15 minutes.

Remove cinnamon stick and 5 cardamon seeds from chicken mixture and discard.
Serve chicken and sauce over cauliflower.