Omani Cuisine

This recipe is simple easy way for making  a very tasty chicken grilled in the oven. It takes 10 minutes of spices preparation and around an hour of grilling without the need to check it. I consider it a healthy meal as itdoesn’t require any oil for cooking and contains a couple of herbs and spices which are rich with helpful minerals.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken, 600grams or 800grams
• 2 crushed or thinly sliced green chili
• 1 medium sized onion chopped in cubes
• 2 medium sized tomatoes chopped in cubes
• 5 crushed gloves of garlic
• 1 tea-spoon of black pepper
• A hand-full of chopped coriander
• ¼ tea-spoon of turmeric
• ½ tea-spoon salt
• 2 lemons

Method:

1.  Clean the chicken well and peal the skin off
2. Rub the green chili, garlic, black pepper, turmeric, and salt all  over the chicken.
3. Fill the inside of the chicken with the chopped onion, tomatoes, and coriander.
4. Squeeze the lemons on the outside and inside of the chicken.
5. Wrap the whole chicken with aluminum foil and put it on an oven tray.
6. Put it into the oven for an hour.

If you are using a gas oven switch the down flame at medium to high heat. If using an electric oven use 260‘C.

Optional vegetables could be grilled next to the chicken, but make sure you wrap it with aluminum foil otherwise it will burn for that long.

The chicken could be either eaten with rice or bread. If rice is used its advised to have some sort of curry such as Dal (lentils) as the chicken wouldn’t be very saucy even though the tomatoes is inside it.

Enjoy.

This post has been submitted by chef Mohammed Al Manthari – a Omani student in New Zealand. Please feel free to share your recipes and reviews with the rest of the Omani Cuisine community by emailing us at contact@omanicuisine.com.

Today’s recipe is rich with protein and minerals and tastes great with its seasonal spices and basil leaves. The locals of Oman are known for their many different fish dishes (Fish is the second largest export of the country after all!). I have chosen this recipe as it is one of the healthiest and most tasteful. A must-east for both grilled food fans and sea food fans!

The Ingredients are:

• ½ Kg of Tuna (Gaithar) Fish cubes.
• A selection of vegetables (any of all):
  • Courgettes
  • Mushrooms
  • Cauliflower,
  • Yellow, Green, Red Peppers
  • Egg plant
  • Lady fingers (Okra)
• 2 crushed green chillies (amendable, 1 makes it mild).
• 1 large onion
• 3 tomatoes
• Basil (a handful)
• 1 lemon
• 2 teaspoons fish curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon red chilli powder
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• 3 cloves of crushed garlic

Before anything, marinate the fish cubes for an hour to 3 hours into bowel and add the green chillies, lemon, fish curry powder, salt, black pepper, turmeric, garlic and red chilli powder, then return the bowel in the fridge.

1. Cut onions into small cubes.
2. Heat up the pot and add 2-teaspoon oil (preferably, olive oil).
3. Add the onions and let it fry until golden brown.
4. then cut the tomatoes into smaller cubes and add them
5. add the marinated fish.
6. let it cook for 10 minutes.
7. add the basil leaves
8. then add all the vegetables and add a cup of warm water.
9. let it all cook for another 20-30 minutes on medium heat.
10. heat the oven and add the fish pieces only to grill for 10-15 minutes, while the rest of the vegetables are cooking in lower heat.

N.B: the spices are adjustable depending on your taste.

Hope you enjoy your vegetable fish dish.