A_Delicious_Dish

The main meal in most Arabian Gulf countries is lunch and the popular food is rice and meat or chicken. This special food is called Kabsa in Saudi Arabia and Machbus in Bahrain and Kuwait. No matter how different the name is, the way the dish is prepared and served is still the same. Kabsa does not simply imply a food to be eaten, but it also connotes a social occasion for friends and family members to gather and meet. I have tried Kabsa in many well-known restaurants in the Middle East, yet, to me, homemade Kabsa is always the best. The reason is that every single stage in preparing Kabsa is minutely taken care of. Let's walk these steps together and see how we will come out with an appealing Kabsa. Firstly, get the ingredients ready: a chicken cut into eight pieces, one cup of Basmati rice (the best quality rice you can buy in the market), two chopped red onions, two chopped tomatoes, four crushed cloves of garlic, and two grated carrots. You can still use other vegetables such as zucchini, but be sure you use only fresh vegetables. As for the spices, you will need four cardamom pods, three cinnamon sticks, salt, pepper and dried lemon. Of course you will also need about a quarter cup of vegetable oil, and the best type is olive oil because it is "mostly made up of monounsaturated fatty acids and antioxidative substances unlike any other oil". So, that can help you improve the health of your heart. It is now time for the most exciting part of the scene! Secondly, you start the cooking. Put the cooking oil in the pot, and place over medium heat until the oil shows the first signs of bubbling. After that, fry the onions until they get a golden color. Add the tomato pieces and cook for five minutes. Next, add the chicken pieces and fry for seven more minutes. Use a wooden spoon instead of a metal one to stir the mix. After that, add enough water to cover the chicken pieces and then add all the mentioned spices. Allow the mix fifteen minutes to boil on a medium fire. Then take the chicken out and put it in the stove at 300-degrees for twenty minutes. After that, put the rice in the broth where the chicken was cooked, turn down the fire to low and wait for about ten minutes until the rice absorbs all the juice in the pot. That's not all! Serving the food has its own ethics . Thirdly, there are two ways to serve Kabsa: the first way is the traditional way where you serve the rice with the chicken in the middle in a dish big enough for a number of people. Everybody sits on the floor and eats from the same dish. The other way to serve Kabsa is the modern way where everybody sits at the table and eats from his own plate. But don't forget to serve green salads and fresh drinks such as buttermilk (Laban), water or lemonade along with the main course. Enjoy the meal, but watch your weight! In the end, food in general plays an inextricable role in our daily lives. Without food we cannot survive. But food is much more than a tool for survival. Food is a source of pleasure, comfort, and security. Food is also a symbol of hospitality, social status, and religious significance . Kabsa, in particular, stands for all that and shows one aspect of the rich Arabian Gulf culinary art.