Mansaf and its history
Mansaf is a traditional Arab dish made of lamb cooked in a sauce of fermented dried yogurt and served with rice or bulgur. It is a popular dish eaten throughout the Levant.
It is considered the national dish of Jordan and also mostly prepared by the Palestinian people in Palestine and can also be found in Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia, as well as in Israel.
Who invented the mansaaf and jameed?
Mansaf was first prepared by Bedouins in the Arabian Desert.
Bedouins and the way they lived see images below
Back then, it was made with camel or lamb meat, shark bread and ghee or meat broth.
Rice and jameed were included in the dish at a later stage.
As Bedouins lived like nomads and moved around a lot. They spread their recipes throughout the region.
Mansaf is a celebratory meal, usually served during weddings, graduations, births and holidays.
It is almost always served on Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha and especially on April 11, Jordan’s Independence Day.
Mansaf meaning a large tray of a heavy,sticky,delicious heap of rice,lamb,almonds and fermented yogurt called jameed one of the important ingredients in preparing mansaf.
What is Jameed made of?
Jameed (Arabic: جميد, literally hardened) is a Bedouins food mainly the Levant consisting of hard dry laban made from ewe or goat's milk.
Milk is kept in fine woven cheesecloth to make a thick yogurt. It is a tangy and salted and rinsed daily to expel the whey then dried in the sun.
If you’re visiting Jordan or Palestine or other desert areas you’ll often see balls of jammed drying on top of Bedouin tents.
After a few days of salting the yogurt it became very dense and easily removes from the cloth and then shape it into round balls.
They then set them to dry for a few days and if you dry Jameed in the sun it turns into yellow in color and if you dry it under the shade it remains white.
Jameed must be dry to the core because any dampness can spoil the preservation process.
The dried balls could be preserved for months in sealed boxes without refrigeration as they were very low in moisture.
Traditionally jameed was made in late spring and early summer when sheep's milk is most plentiful.
The leftover buttermilk was then reduced by boiling until it reached a consistency similar to labaneh (thick yogurt).
What is Jameed sauce?
Jameed is made out of jameed stones. These stones are churned for hours and mixed with vegetable oil until they becomes a soft and smooth yogurt sauce of a rich and distinct flavor.
What does Mansaf labaneh soup or jameed taste like?
It is usually made from goat,lamb yogurt it had quite a strong flavor as in you could actually taste the pastures and herd of goats within the jameed.
In addition to the meaty goat flavor it also had a sour yogurt taste and it was salty, rich and creamy.
Al-Karak in Jordan is known to produce the highest quality of jameed.
The city of Al-Karak in Jordan has a reputation for producing the highest quality of jameed which you will find its recipe.
In addition to Mansaf, Jameed is used in other Arabic dishes such as Fatta, Mahashi, Kousa Mahshi, Kubbeh, and many more.
HOW TO EAT MANSAF
Mansaf should be eaten with the use of a person's right hand only while the left is behind the person's back. The hand is used to pick the rice and shape it into small balls and is placed in the mouth through the use of three fingers.
Mansaf preparations:
Main ingredients: lamb, jameed, rice or bulgur, shrak bread, ghee
· 2 kilos lamb
· 1 cup clarified butter or ghee if available
· Salt
· Pepper
· 1 medium onion, finely chopped
· 4 cups jameed yogurt
· 1 teaspoon pepper
· ½ teaspoon coriander
· ½ teaspoons cumin
· ½ teaspoon paprika
· ¼ teaspoon cardamom
· ½ cup whole blanched almond
· ½ cup almonds
· ½ cup pine nuts
· 4-6 loaves pita bread
· 3 cups Jasmine or Basmati rice
· A bit of finely chopped parsley or chives for garnish
Directions:
Wash meat cubes and place in tray with lid and cover meat with water cover tray and place in refrigerator for 4-8 hours.
Melt 1/4 cup of the clarified butter in heavy skillet over medium-high heat.
Drain and pat dry meat cubes and place in skillet and cook for 20 minutes or until brown on all sides.
Season meat with salt and pepper to taste and add enough water to cover the meat and start cooking reduce the heat if boiling starts and start taking out the foamy above the water.
Add some onions and simmer cover the pot and cook for 1 hour or until the meat become tender enough to bite but not overcook.
While meat and onion are cooking place jameed yogurt in a large saucepan or pot and whisk over medium heat until become liquid.
Slowly bring yogurt mixture to boil stirring constantly with a wooden spoon in one direction only to reach desired consistency.
Reduce heat to low and allow yogurt to softly simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
Start transferring the boiled meat into the yogurt saucepan and add seasoning as desired.
Simmer again slowly for about 15 minutes until the jameed yougort sauce dissolve in the meat and adjust seasonings as needed.
In a small skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of clarified butter or ghee add the almonds and cook for 5 minutes add also the pine nuts and cook for 3 minutes.
Remove from heat and set aside.
Split the khubz loaves open and arrange overlapping on a large serving tray and toast it until crunchy.
Slice some of the toast and put in a bowl with laban soup to soften it and
put some rice over the soften khubz bread and on the top of the rice sprinkle a bit of almonds and pine nuts and a bit of parsley whatever you desired.
Some other Arab they will arrange the shrak mansaf bread in a big platter and fill the tray with rice and arranges the meat over the rice and sprinkle with almonds, pine nuts and a bit of pine parsley, chives over the meat.
Mansaf is served with the Bedouin specialty Shrak bread خبز شراك, which is paper thin bread cooked over an extroverted piece of cast iron (known as a Sajyeh صاجية) that is placed straight over the burning wood.
Clarified butter is necessary for frying since it doesn’t burn.
One stick (or 1/2 cup of butter) will yield about 6 tablespoons of clarified butter.
So for this recipe you will need to clarify approximately 3/4 cup of butter.
Following is a simple clarification method. It’s not perfect but easy and closes enough.
Slowly melt a stick of butter. Remove from heat and allow butter to cool undisturbed for 10 minutes to separate.
You will notice white foam on the top, the clarified butter in the center, and milk solids at the bottom. Carefully, skim the foam off the top and discard.
For a more authentic Bedouin flavor add the following spices:
½ teaspoon cinnamon.
½ teaspoon of cloves.
2 teaspoons of nutmeg.
1 tsp of ghee
A jameed broth is prepared and the pieces of lamb are cooked in it. The dish is served on a large platter with a layer of flatbread (markook or shrak) topped with rice and then meat, garnished with almonds and pine nuts, and then the creamy jameed sauce is poured on top of the dish.
Mansaaf is ready to eat! Enjoy!
Enjoy the taste of different Arabic tea of your choice!
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