Omani Cuisine

Rice in Arabic is called A’ruz, but in the majority of the Gulf states nobody calls it by its proper Arabic name and instead refer to it as Aish (3aish), which literally means “the state of living” or “life”.

Rice is a principal element in the Gulf diet and it has to be served for every-single-lunch-meal. Many nationals in the area will not consider a meal they eat around noon time without rice a ‘lunch meal’.

It is interesting to notice the distinction between the naming convention of rice based meals in Arabic and English. In English, the meal is called ’something and rice’ while in Arabic Khaleeji dialect, the rice always comes first, it is Aish wa Laham (rice and meat), or Aish was Samak (rice and fish). Another interesting fact is the different usage of the word Aish in other Arabic states, such as the Mediterranean Arab states and Egypt, where Aish means bread and not rice, as bread is the principal element of of the majority of the meals served there.

Our dish today is a very basic ‘aish’ meal, check out the ingredients and method on how to make your own ‘aish’.

Ingredients

• 2 mugs of rice (Uncle bens rice)
• 400g of boneless chicken diced into small cubes
• 2 medium onions sliced into short wide strips
• 2 medium capsicums sliced into short wide strips
• 2 medium tomatoes diced into small cubes
• 2 clovers of garlic crushed
• chili crushed
• tomato paste
• mixed chicken spices
• salt and pepper
• 1 lemon

Method

Chicken

1. Put the chicken in an oiled heated pot and stir until it turns white then add salt, pepper, and mixed chicken spices.
2. Add the onion, capsicum, tomato, garlic, and chili to the mix and then stir and leave for 5 minutes.
3. Add the tomato paste and a mug of water. Mix and add the juice of the lemon.
4. Lower the heat and leave for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. You can add more water to the chicken if all the water in the pot evaporates and the chicken is not yet cooked.

Rice

1. Add only a quarter of a mug of rice to an oiled pot and stir until the rice turns brown.
2. Add the rest of the rice to the pot and add 3 mugs of water. Add salt to it, stir well, cover and leave for 20 minutes on low heat.
3. Remove the pot from the cooker and leave on the side for 5 minutes before serving.

A bachelor living in Oman is usually much used to eating chicken, and I mean here a lot of chicken. There isn’t much to choose from as 90% of edible food served in casual restaurants around muscat is chicken-this and chicken-that. A few restaurants in Oman serve decent fish, and that really is weird when you think about as Oman has a coast that is more than 1500km in length and fish is one of its main exports.

Sick of the oil-soaked friend fish served around here, and in hope that our blog does not turn to the Omani Chicken Cuisine, we decided to have fish this time. Hope you like it!

• Halibut Fish, 250g
• 3 clovers of Garlic
• 1/4 teasp of crushed Ginger
• Olive Oil
• Vinegar
• green Chili
• 1/2 teasp Oregano powder
• 1 lemon
• Salt
• 1/2 teasp Cumin
• parsely

Method

1. Crush the garlic and the green chili. Add the ginger, cumin and the oregano to the crushed mix.
2. Add the olive oil and the vinger to the mix. Get the lemon and peel some of its skin to get the lemon zest. After getting the zest add the juice of the lemon and some finely chopped parsley to the mix.
3. Clean the slices of the halibut fish well then put them in the mix to marinate for one hour.
4. Heat up a non-stick pan. Fry the slices of Halibut with marination mix. Fry the halibut until both sides get red as seen in the picture. Add a little amonut of water to the fish to make sure it is done.

The Fish is served with Saiadia Rice and potato salad

• 1 mug of Rice (Uncle bens rice)
• 2 red onions
• 1 tomato
• salt
• 1/2 teasp cumin
• Pine seeds

Method

1. mince the onions and fry them in an oiled pot until the onions turn brown (very brown just a degree before they turn black).
2. Add the minced tomato to the onions and keep heating the mix for a while.
3. Add the rice, salt and cumin. Mix the rice with rest of the ingredents well.
4. Add 2 1/4 mugs of water. Give the rice a last stirr then close the lid, leave it for 20 minutes until it is cooked.
5. Fill a bowl with the rice then flip it over on a plate to have the round shape seen in the picture above. Garnish the rice with fried pine seeds.

Potato Salad
Ingredients

• 1 medium Potato
• 1 clover of Garlic
• Parsley
• 1 tspVinger
• Salt /Cumin ( As desired)

Method

1. Cut the potato into cubes and boil them in water until they are done ( do not over cook the potato)
2. Drain the potato cubes. Minced the garlic and finely chop the parsley.
3. Add the garlic, parsley, vinger, cumin and salt to the potato and mix the will without crushing the potato cubes.

I hate it when people make cooking sound like a complex job that requires knowledge of specific mysterious formulae. Anybody can cook. As long as you do the very basics right, whatever else you do is optional and rarely anything will severally affect the way your food tastes. This meal is one of those really easy ones to do. The Cardiff Cabsa is what we used to cook all the time during uni days in Cardiff, I learnt how to make it there, the recipe could not be traced to a single Gulf or Indian country because guys from different places in the Gulf chipped in their own additions and twists over the years. Check it out here:

Ingredients (For Four People):

• 2 mugs of basmati rice
• 1 whole large chicken, sliced into 6 or 8 pieces, skin removed optionally
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
• 1 chili, chopped into small rings
• 1 garlic clover, crushed
• tomato paste
• 1 chicken stock (Maggi cubes)
• 1 tablespoon of mixed arabian kabsa spices
• 1 tablespoon of turmeric (kurkum)
• 1 teaspoon dried lemon poweder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper

Method:

1. In a large oiled pot fry onion until colour turns to redish yellow, add chopped tomoto, chili and crushed garlic and stir until juicy syrup is created.
2. Add chicken, turmeric, spices, and stir to cover all chicken pieces with spices.
3. Add tomato paste and stir.
4. Add 4 mugs of water, wait to boil for a while, add the chicken stock.
5. Heat on high heat for 20 minutes, check using the knife test to see if chicken is cooked.
6. Lower heat, add rice, cover the pot using the lid and wait for 20 minutes. Make sure not to lift the lid so that the steam does not escape.
7. Take out and eat!