Bahrain - home cooking



When anticipating the next meal, from Bahrain, I expected to have the same problem as I had with the Bahamian meal. There are many pan-regional restauarnts in London (Caribbean, and in this case Middle Eastern) but finding individual national dishes wasn't going to be easy. The little bit of research I did online confirmed this. However, another complication was that the meal in the question this time - mahboos - is popular all over the Gulf region, but each country adds their own unique touch to it.

Therefore I thought the safest way to authentically recreate the meal the Bahraini way would be to, again, cook from home. In Bahrain, chicken mahboos is most prevalent, and I combined several Bahraini recipes to create this meal.

Most recipes worked from quartering a whole chicken. Not one to mess with whole animals, I opted to go for a mixture of chicken legs and boneless thighs. I started by mixing a combination of garam masala, tumeric, cumin, cardamom and salt together and rubbing it into the chicken pieces.

The next stage was to fry three chopped onions in oil until golden brown, then adding black pepper and some lime juice. Next, add the chicken pieces to the pan, sprinkle ground cinnamon, and baharat onto the contents of the pan, mix and turn well, cover and cook for three minutes.

As an aside, I was really surprised to find baharat in my local supermarket. It is a Middle Eastern mix of many different spices and is very common in the region.

Next, I added garlic, ginger and tomatoes to the pan, cooked for a few minutes more, added some more salt, water and covered the pan, cooking the contents for 45 minutes.

Five minutes before this time was up, I added chopped coriander leaves. Then, after removing the chicken pieces from the stock, I brushed them with oil, spinkled more cinnamon powder on them and grilled the chicken until golden brown.

Back to the pan of stock, I added the basmati rice and cooked until the stock was absorbed. Then the rice was sprinkled with rose water and lemon juice, and topped with pieces of butter. This was then cooked on a low heat for 10 more minutes.

Then it was time to serve. After fluffing up the rice it was spooned onto a plate, and the chicken pieces placed on top.

I was actually really pleased how this turned out. The chicken was perfect - very flavoursome and very very succulent. The grilling added extra flavour. But the part I enjoyed most was the rice. It was absolutely awesome. The range and strength of flavours had to be tasted to be believed. The difference that the rose water made to the overall taste was incredible.

It turns out I had cooked way too much rice. Which was perfect, as we both took a full box of the stuff to work for lunch the next day. And it was just as good then as it was the day before.

This was one large, wholesome, and hugely enjoyable meal.

Bahamas - home cooking

The progress has been slow so far, but we have finally completed the letter "A", and are now on to our first "B". Progress with the next country, the Bahamas, was slowed due to research that was needed to ascertainwhether there was a restaurant in London that specialised in Bahamian food.

Stopping short of calling every Caribbean restaurant in the city to ask if they could come up with the goods from this small island nation, I couldn't find any suitable restaurant for our project. I had hoped that a friendly email to the Bahamian High Commission in London would result in some points, but instead it resulted in nothing.

There was only one thing for it. Time to head into the kitchen...

As with the last country whose cuisine I cooked, Antigua and Barbuda, it was difficult to find a suitable dish that we would both enjoy. In this case, it was because the majority of the main courses were seafood dishes, of which we are not too keen.

However, something that instantly appealed with chicken souse - a kind of hot, tangy chicken broth. Apparently it is known to be a bit of a curer for the morning after the night before. I'd be lying if I said that neither of us were in this kind of situation of the day of cooking (!)...

Ingredients needed for this were chicken wings (we went for about five or six per person, so 12ish altogether), one large onion (chopped), three large potatoes (chopped), one cup of fresh lime juice, one Scotsh bonnet chilli (chopped), two tablespoons of salt, one tablespoon of clovess, one large carrot, four bay leaves and one tablespoon of black pepper.

Cooking was in two stages - meat preparation/marinading, and cooking of the broth. Season the chicken wings with the salt and four tablespoons of the lime juice. Mix around thouroughly, coating all the chicken, then cover, refridgerate and allow to marinate for an hour.

After the time has passed, add the chicken and all the other ingredients to a large pot, and add water so that it covers all the contents plus one inch above. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for an hour.


The meal is traditionally served with Johnny cakes, which are made from cornmeal. However, I was unable to find these, and I wasn't about to try and make my own (I cannot bake to save myself!) so I just bought some floury bread rolls.

The chicken souse had a very powerful, interesting flavour. The citrus of the lime juice really punched through, as did the intense spice of the Scotch bonnet chilli. However, the flavour of the broth itself carried the other spices that were added. The meat on the chicken wings was really succulent, and had taken in the flavour well, almost falling off the bone. The potato and the carrot gave some substance to what was in the end quite a thin soup.

As good as it was, we each had a rather substantial portion and after a while you could certain feel the citrus juice sitting on the stomach. Overall though, this was a really enjoy, strangely refreshing meal. Easy to see how can perk up even the most lethargic of afternoons!