Bahrain: Machboos, Luqaimat and Balaleet

Luqaimat covered in date syrup! Yummmmm!

This was such a fun country to cook- partly because I cooked this for a girls night with friends, and partly because I got to use some fun new ingredients, some of which I’d never heard of! Once again, thank goodness for Amazon for meeting all of my weird cooking needs- I was able to find baharat seasoning, loomi and rosewater!

For those of you wondering, Bahrain is a middle eastern country and is made up of over 50 islands in the Persian Gulf! It is situated just northwest of Qatar.

For the main dish, I made chicken Machboos, which is a chicken and rice dish spiced with baharat (an arabic spice mixture), ginger, turmeric, garlic, chili peppers, loomi (dried limes), cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. Phew! That is a lot of spices! Oh, and you can’t forget the rosewater sprinkled on top! (Who knew rosewater was used for more than skin care??) This dish was so yummy and surprisingly easy to make, even with all those ingredients!

For dessert, I made luqaimat with date syrup and O.M.G. these were SO good, and also very easy to make! They’re basically donut holes spiced with saffron and cardamom and I COULD NOT STOP EATING THEM. Crunchy on the outside, warm and chewy on the inside… mmmm…

I also attempted a traditional Bahraini breakfast called balaleet. It’s made of a sweet pasta dish (also spiced with saffron, cardamom, cinnamon and rosewater) that’s topped with an omelet! Weird, right? I have to say, I did not really enjoy this one. It was a little too sweet for my taste- especially for breakfast, but it was still fun to try something so different than usual!

I really enjoyed getting to cook and share this meal with friends, and I will definitely be making the luqaimat again, if not the machboos as well! Next up, my beloved Bangladesh!