Muhammar

Bahrain's sweet red rice, steamed over date syrup with saffron and cardamom and eaten with salt-fried fish

Origin: Manama & Bahrain

From the journey of Date.

Muhammar means reddened, and the colour comes from date syrup rather than from any spice. Rice is parboiled, drained, and then steamed with dibs, the thick dark syrup pressed from dates, until the grains take a deep amber and a sweetness that stops well short of dessert. Saffron and cardamom go in with it; rosewater sometimes. It is eaten with fish, and the pairing is the point. The standard Bahraini plate is muhammar beside samak mashwi or fried safi, rabbitfish, salted hard and crisped, so that each mouthful runs sweet against salt. Set out as a dessert it would be strange; set beside a salty fish it makes immediate sense, and it is one of the clearest examples anywhere of a sweet starch used as a savoury course. Bahrain has the deepest date history in the Gulf. The island's freshwater springs supported groves that made it the ancient entrepôt of Dilmun, trading between Mesopotamia and the Indus more than four thousand years ago, and Sumerian tablets name Dilmun dates specifically. The syrup was the practical form: dates keep, and pressed to dibs they keep longer and travel better. Note that this dish shares a name with Syrian muhammara and has nothing whatever to do with it. That one is a roasted pepper and walnut dip; this is sweet rice. Both mean reddened, and the confusion is entirely in the English transliteration.

Ingredients

  • 500 g basmati rice, rinsed and soaked 30 minutes
  • 150 ml date syrup (dibs)
  • 80 g ghee or butter
  • 1 tsp saffron threads, steeped in 3 tbsp warm water
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom
  • 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp rosewater (optional)
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 litres water, for parboiling
  • 50 g dates, pitted and halved (optional)

Method

  1. Bring the water to a rolling boil with the salt. Drain the soaked rice, add it, and boil for five to six minutes only. The grains should have softened at the edges and stayed firmly raw at the centre; bite one to check.
  2. Drain thoroughly and let it steam dry for two minutes.
  3. Warm the date syrup with the cardamom, cinnamon, and half the saffron water in a small pan until loose and pourable, but do not let it boil, since date syrup catches and turns bitter quickly.
  4. Melt half the ghee in the base of a heavy pot and spread a thin layer of the parboiled rice over it.
  5. Add the rest of the rice in layers, spooning the warm date syrup between them rather than stirring it through. Streaks of colour are wanted; an evenly brown rice means it was mixed.
  6. Dot the remaining ghee over the top, scatter the dates if using, and pour over the last of the saffron water and the rosewater.
  7. Make three or four holes down through the rice with the handle of a spoon so the steam can rise.
  8. Cover the pot with a cloth under the lid to catch condensation, and steam on the lowest possible heat for thirty to thirty-five minutes.
  9. Do not stir. Fork through gently only at the moment of serving, so the pale and dark grains stay distinct, and serve with fried or grilled salted fish.

Notes

Date syrup burns and turns bitter if it boils, so warm it and no more. Layering rather than stirring is what gives muhammar its streaked look; a uniformly brown rice has been over-mixed. The dish should be gently sweet rather than sugary, and the salt in the parboiling water is what keeps it in balance. If your dibs is very thick, loosen it with a spoonful of hot water before layering.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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