Mansaf is the national dish of Jordan (with origins traced back to Syria) that plays a key role in all celebrations and festivals in the country. The meat is slowly cooked in fermented, yogurt-like goat's milk called jameed, resulting in a unique dish that is not just a meal, but a social tradition.
Mansaf, an Arabic word for explosion, is commonly offered to guests as a sign of appreciation, value, and respect. It can be made with goat, beef, or chicken meat, where goat signifies the highest level of respect and value, and chicken the least, so beef or chicken is rarely to be seen in Mansaf.
MOST ICONIC Mansaf
Warak enab is a traditional Middle Eastern dish consisting of stuffed grape leaves that are simmered in a lemon-flavored broth. The ingredients include grape leaves, ground beef, rice, allspice, cinnamon, salt, lemon juice, oil, and lamb chops or ribs for the broth.
Once cooked, these stuffed rolls are usually garnished with a few lemon slices on top or, alternatively, olives and tomato slices.
Kousa mahshi is a traditional Levantine dish that consists of zucchinis that have been cored and filled with a mixture of rice and minced meat. Typically, the vegetable used for stuffing is a type of summer squash called kousa, which is paler in color and smaller than a zucchini, while the traditional choice of meat is lamb, although beef can also be used instead of it.
The rice-and-meat filling is usually flavored with samneh (clarified butter), fried onions, pine nuts, and herbs and spices such as allspice, coriander, parsley, cumin, and black pepper. Once stuffed, the zucchinis are typically simmered in water or broth (often tomato-based), while sometimes they can also be fried before the cooking process.
Malfuf is a traditional dish consisting of blanched cabbage leaves that have been rolled around a filling of minced meat and rice before being simmered in lemon-garlic sauce. Traditionally, the filling is made with minced lamb, although minced beef or even chickpeas (for vegetarian versions) can also be used instead of lamb.
The rice-and-meat mixture is usually enhanced with onions, samneh (clarified butter), and spices such as baharat spice or allspice, cinnamon, salt, and black pepper. Water or meat stock can be used for the sauce, while the lemon juice is sometimes replaced with a combination of pomegranate molasses and water.
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