Maftool Recipe

Maftool, attractive caviar-sized pearls made from entire wheat, is among the most distinctively Palestinian dishes you’ll come throughout. The phrase maftool merely means “rolled” in Arabic and refers back to the approach flour is rolled round small bulgur grains to reach at these lovely pearls. In northern Palestine, the place my father is from, folks are inclined to make the balls barely bigger and name them “moghrabieh” (actually: of the Maghreb) most likely a reference to North African couscous, which is equally ready albeit considerably smaller.

Within the heart and south of Palestine, maftool are made as small as Ossetra caviar, so greater than couscous however smaller than moghrabieh. They’re usually cooked by steaming them over a boiling pot of broth, with dough used to seal the sting of the pot to totally lure steam and make sure the maftool prepare dinner evenly. On this recipe, I’ve settled on a mixed simmer-and-steam methodology that’s simpler and faster than steaming alone, however nonetheless provides you fluffy and separate grains. The secret’s to let the cooked maftool relaxation within the residual steam after all of the liquid has been absorbed, very similar to a pot of rice. 

Essentially the most conventional method to serve maftool is with a brothy stew that features onions, chickpeas, and hen, and incessantly seasoned with caraway. Not everybody makes use of caraway seeds to taste the broth (it tastes completely scrumptious with out it), however it’s the signature spice of this dish for a lot of Palestinians. In several elements of the nation, just like the one my mom is from, butternut squash or pumpkin cubes are a standard part within the broth, their sweetness an ideal distinction to the in any other case earthy and heat notes of this dish. Some folks add tomato paste to the broth, whereas others prepare dinner the pearls instantly in a tomato broth and serve it up nearly like a risotto. However the model with onion, chickpeas, and hen is the gold normal.  

The inventory used to each prepare dinner the maftool and act because the brothy stew is usually made by boiling hen with spices and aromatics. The cooked hen can then be shredded and served over the maftool with among the broth ladled on prime. I personally desire to roast the hen within the oven as a substitute of simply boiling it, as a result of it provides one other layer of taste and texture to the dish.

Rising up, I used to observe my grandmother and her sisters making ready maftool. The woman making ready it might be seated on the ground with a large bowl in her lap, a jug of water on the left and a bowl of flour on the correct. She would begin with some grains of bulgur within the bowl to which she would add flour and a sprinkling of water earlier than beginning to roll together with her palms, a delicate dance that magically made lovely pearls seem. A big flat strainer referred to as a gherbal would then be used to separate the grains that had change into the correct dimension from the smaller ones which might return to the bowl the place the dance continued. These pearls would then be steamed and dried to be saved to be used all year long. The place refrigeration was widespread, the steamed pearls could possibly be frozen after steaming with out drying, for a lot faster cooking in a while.

It may well take time, observe, and the correct tools to make good selfmade maftool, so the best choice for many, and what I am instructing on this recipe, is to buy dried maftool, out there most Center Japanese grocery shops in addition to on-line (search for manufacturers like Canaan and Les Moulins Mahjoub). But when for any purpose you can’t entry it, Italian fregola sarda, Moroccan big/pearl couscous and even, in a pinch, bulgur alone can work as substitutes. Whereas the springy texture and nutty taste may not be precisely the identical, it’ll be shut sufficient to be very pleasurable. However it’s well worth the effort to hunt out true maftool—nothing else will fairly seize the best way the pearls of maftool roll round in your mouth in between bites of candy butternut and hearty chickpeas.