Dinner in Jordan
Tonight was our dinner for our time visiting Jordan. These special dinners inevitably end up being significantly labor intensive, but also equally delicious. Tonight's meal was not different. We made baba ganoush and mansaf, which we learned is pretty much the national dish of Jordan.
The baba ganoush turned out quite well, which thrilled me as this is normally something we get when we do take out. I'm thrilled to be able to make it ourselves. P., M., and B. all helped to make it, thus sparing me the messy duty of peeling roasted eggplants. (And yes, B. was able to join us for the day and stay for dinner.)
The mansaf took a bit more effort. It is a combination of lamb, rice, yogurt sauce and bread. Here is what it looked like.
You layer the different elements of the meal, and then it is served communally, with each person tearing off pieces of the bread, and scooping up the rice and lamb. L., it turns out, is particularly fond of almonds roasted in butter. There wasn't a whole lot left, and it was very filling.
The recipe I used (I linked to it up above), was not the most well-written recipe I've ever followed, but we made it work. I'm not sure you would come out with decent rice by just following the recipe, though. Our saffron rice is supposed to be just a bit more yellow, but I was unwilling to use the amount of saffron called for based on the amount of rice I was making. I bought Afghani saffron in China two and half years ago, and I've been hoarding it ever since. There is still a very small amount left.
It was a successful dinner. It's a good thing, though that we have at least two weeks in between each meal, as they can be a bit exhausting!
The baba ganoush turned out quite well, which thrilled me as this is normally something we get when we do take out. I'm thrilled to be able to make it ourselves. P., M., and B. all helped to make it, thus sparing me the messy duty of peeling roasted eggplants. (And yes, B. was able to join us for the day and stay for dinner.)
The mansaf took a bit more effort. It is a combination of lamb, rice, yogurt sauce and bread. Here is what it looked like.
You layer the different elements of the meal, and then it is served communally, with each person tearing off pieces of the bread, and scooping up the rice and lamb. L., it turns out, is particularly fond of almonds roasted in butter. There wasn't a whole lot left, and it was very filling.
The recipe I used (I linked to it up above), was not the most well-written recipe I've ever followed, but we made it work. I'm not sure you would come out with decent rice by just following the recipe, though. Our saffron rice is supposed to be just a bit more yellow, but I was unwilling to use the amount of saffron called for based on the amount of rice I was making. I bought Afghani saffron in China two and half years ago, and I've been hoarding it ever since. There is still a very small amount left.
It was a successful dinner. It's a good thing, though that we have at least two weeks in between each meal, as they can be a bit exhausting!
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