The Story of Mansaff

Mansaff is an Arabic dish. It is not Lebanese; I have never seen it or eaten it in my life.

But today it came to mind and I wanted to cook it. 

No recipe in any cookbook I own. 

The world wide web was completely useless with 100s of recipes that have nothing in common with each other.

So I ventured on my own. 

Lamb was a given. Dad, who tasted it once in Syria, said it has to be made with ghee.

The idea is you fry the lamb in ghee with onions.

Then you are supposed to cook it in some dairy product that I don't know.

The replacement, according to the web, has many versions. So I mixed and matched. 

I cooked yogurt with an egg and cream cheese. And then added the lamb to simmer in it.

As the lamb simmered, I cooked rice flavoured with cardamom, turmeric, cinnamon and all spice.

Grilled bread was laid as a base for the rice. The rice poured over it.

Then came the lamb yogurt mix topped with grilled almonds and pine nuts.

The story of Mansaff does not end here.

You are supposed to eat it by taking a pile of the rice mix, rolling it into a ball in your hand and then throwing the ball into your mouth.

I tried. I made my guests try. We failed.

But still enjoyed a lovely Mansaff taste.