Egyptian · Main
Mahshi Kromb
- Advanced
- 60 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with fresh herbs arguing happily on top, savory depth stacked from the pantry’s bass notes, settling low and earthy.
Ingredients
- 1 white cabbage, about 1.5 kg
- 400 g Egyptian short grain rice, rinsed until the water runs clear
- 400 g ripe tomatoes, grated
- 150 g onion, finely chopped
- 60 g flat parsley
- 40 g dill
- 40 g coriander leaf
- 60 ml sunflower oil
- 60 g samna
- 10 g ground cumin
- 5 g ground coriander
- 12 g salt
- 30 g tomato paste
- 500 ml water
- 1 lemon
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 5 g dried mint
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Allergen screen
Found: dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Core the cabbage, lower the head into boiling salted water and peel the leaves away as they slacken, lifting each one while it is still bright and bends without cracking; shave the thick rib flat.
- Mix the raw rice with the grated tomato, onion, herbs, oil, cumin, coriander and salt. It should taste a shade too salty in the bowl; the rice will take it up.
- Roll pencil thick lines of filling in the leaves, seam down, packed loose, leaving a third of the leaf empty at each end for the rice to grow into.
- Line the pot with the shaved ribs and the outer leaves, pack the rolls in tight layers, set a plate on top as a weight, then pour in the water slaked with tomato paste and lemon juice to just cover.
- Bring to a boil, drop to the faintest simmer for 45 minutes, then pour over the garlic and dried mint fried in the samna, cover and leave off the heat for 5 minutes. 45 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Salted water & the float test 188 recipes
- The water was salted before anything went in, and tasting it confirms it: seasoned on the tongue, with the salt dissolved rather than sitting on the pot floor.
- There is enough water, hot enough, that the pot returns to its boil quickly after the food goes in and never stops moving.
- Where the dish uses the float as its signal, the signal is obeyed: the pieces rise and they come out then, not several minutes later once something else was finished.
- Nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pot or welded to itself, and the water has not thickened into a cloudy sludge.
- Drained on a bite rather than on the clock: resistance at the centre, with no chalky raw core.
Where it goes wrong The pot was too small and the water unsalted, so it never recovered its boil: the food sat in slack water, went gummy at the surface, and comes out bland in a way that no sauce afterwards can fix.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Chianti Classico or Barbera d’Alba
- Also Right
- Vermentino for the lighter plates
- From the Taps
- Italian pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- San Pellegrino Sanbittèr
Tomato’s acid demands equal acid: Italian reds evolved beside the sauce, and the regional pairing is the safest law in wine.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.