A complete one pot dish made with broken wheat, yogurt and cream…
SubhanAllah, we are on the last ten days of Ramadan. How fast time is flying… Every year, we look forward to the last ten days, which Allah has declared includes the best night in the whole year, the Lailathul Qadr – “Khairun min alfi shahar” – better than 1000 months, easily more than our one lifetime. We are asked to look out for the day and increase as much as good deeds we can do during these last ten days in anticipation of the blessed night.
However, as women, we may face our periods interfering with our days and we get upset that we may not be able to do as much as we can, especially since prayers are not allowed. Allah is Ar-Rahman, and hence expecting His Mercy while we make our sincerest intention, we can make as much as zikr our tongues can handle, listen to some beautiful recitations like this one and recite along with it, give charity, cook food for our neighbors, listen to lectures to learn new things about our religion, the list is endless…. At night, when everyone runs towards the Qiyamulail, we can sit on our prayer spots and make our dua. We don’t need to be clean to do that. It is a condition that Allah has given us to let us take things slow, since He knows how much we put a lot of stress on ourselves. So let us be His thankful slaves and do the best we can, InShaAllah… 🙂
My dear blogger friend Meena, who loves my collection of Emirati recipes, once messaged me saying that she had found out this recipe that uses broken wheat called “Jereesh” and I must try it, since it was really easy to make and absolutely delicious. As soon as I read through the recipe, I felt it like a cross between the Harees and the Arseeyah. Moreover, it had been a really long time since I had tried a new Emirati recipe. So I took the opportunity and decided to make it.
Jareesh is nothing but broken wheat. It is a little bigger than the regular nurukk gothamb we use and hence has a higher cooking time. Just like the Harees, it is very much a one-pot meal and uses chicken as its protein. To make it quite rich, it uses yogurt and cream as well. Top it with some ghee and fried onions, and you have a soulful dish at hand. It is said that Jareesh is more of a Saudi Arabian dish – in fact, it is declared as their national food – with little variations in the end result. Immaterial of it, it is still delicious in its own way… Try it during Ramadan or maybe even as a lazy lunch or dinner meal any day later, InShaAllah… 🙂 There are variations that include tuna with a little spices, also the Saudi version of mixing jareesh with a little rice, which I must try gradually…
Emirati Jareesh | Broken Wheat with Chicken and Yogurt
Ingredients
- 1 cup jareesh
- 1 large chicken breast refer notes
- 1 stick cinnamon small
- 2-3 cardamom
- 2 cups water
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 stock cube
- 1 cup yogurt
- 125 ml cream one pack
- Melted ghee and fried onions for topping
Instructions
- Soak the jareesh for at least 2 hours or more. Clean and drain.
- In a pressure cooker, add the jareesh, chicken, water, cinnamon, cardamom, chicken stock cube, salt and pepper. Pressure cook for around 5-6 whistles on meduim-low flame.
- Allow pressure to go by itself.
- Whisk the yogurt and cream together.
- Open the cooker, add the yogurt-cream mix. You will see the mixture is dry, the chicken is all shredded.
- Bring the mixture to cook for around 10 minutes on low flame. Adjust seasoning.
- Using a hand blender, blend the mixture till smooth.
- Serve hot, with ghee and fried onions.