The Kitchen

Never have I mentioned "meghli," or been served it as a guest, without there returning to my mind's eye the picture of my grandmother, God rest her soul, squatting in our old kitchen just before a feast, or after a new birth, cooking the meghli with special care and spreading through the house an air of rejoicing and ululations... For meghli is one of the beloved Lebanese sweets, and its fragrance most often heralds the coming of a new child into the family.

The grandmothers of bygone days put a great many aromatics into its making — ginger, sweet spice, fennel, caraway, anise, and cinnamon... But the daughters of the modern age have confined themselves to four kinds only: anise, cinnamon, fennel, and caraway. And the old way of putting the spices in with the rice has been changed: they are now boiled separately, strained through a fine strainer, and then poured over the rice. This method gives the meghli a pleasant flavor and keeps its color clear of the spices...

Quantities:

Each single glass of rice requires 12 — twelve — glasses of water, counting among them the boiled spice water. Sugar to taste, ranging between a glass and a half and two glasses for each glass of rice. Anise — fennel — caraway — cinnamon: three spoonfuls of each kind, except the cinnamon, of which one spoonful.

The nuts to be sprinkled over the face of the meghli: walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, pistachios, and grated coconut.

Method: 1 — Take one glass of fine rice and empty it into a pot; then measure over it (11) eleven glasses of water and stir so that they mix well.

2 — Boil all the spices — three teaspoons each of the anise, the fennel, and the caraway, and one spoonful of the cinnamon — in the measure of one glass of water; then strain it through a fine strainer over the mixture of rice and water, set it on the fire, and begin stirring continuously until the rice is cooked and the water thickens. Then pour the sugar over it — its quantity, as you will recall, a glass and a half to two glasses, according to your taste — and redouble the stirring until it is done. Doneness is known by a small quantity put on a plate: it sets as if it were a piece of Turkish delight. Then you pour the meghli into teacups or into special cups, and a little cinnamon is dusted over them. It is well known among the ladies of good households that each glass of rice pours out about twelve cups of meghli.

The women of this age show great artistry in setting the nuts on the face of the meghli; the important thing is that they be well washed, peeled, and dry, and that they not be placed on the meghli until just before it is served. It is preferable to soak the almonds and walnuts before peeling them, so that they taste as though they were green. Some think it best to pound the almonds and walnuts, while the pine nuts and pistachios keep their size. As for the coconut, it is finely grated and the cups are adorned with it.

And these nuts are not put on the cups until their heat has subsided to the point of coolness...

And thus, Madam, you can offer your guests on special occasions the delicious "meghli," and be certain that it is perfectly made.

Use, for each uqiyya of meat, a quarter to a third of a cup of rice and two tablespoons of pine nuts. First soak the rice for half an hour in boiled water, then brown the pine nuts in ghee. Then add the meat and brown it a little. Then add the rice, well washed, and add the pepper, the allspice, the cinnamon, and the nutmeg, and turn the whole in the pot for five minutes after the rice has been put in. Stuff the bird well after cleaning it, then sew it up and boil it in water with salt, cinnamon, and allspice, unground. Then lift the bird from the broth, sprinkle it with salt, pepper, allspice, and nutmeg, and brown it in ghee for half an hour, or put the ghee on it and brown it in the oven.

Put into the broth a little rice and pine nuts and serve it with a little parsley.

A useful hint:

1 — Almonds fried in ghee, pistachios, walnuts, and chestnuts may be added with the stuffing.

2 — Turkey is likewise stuffed with rice, meat, chestnuts, and a little raisins and walnuts.

Take an oka of rib meat and hollow it with a broad knife so that it becomes easy to stuff. Then fill the rib with the stuffing used for chicken or other fowl.