It May Sound Bad, But….

While I live in Cleveland, Ohio, my mother, brother and his family live in Phoenix. Weather-wise, it’s a trade-off between the two.

• We have cold in the winter, they burn in the fires of hell during the summer.
• We have beautiful fall leaves. They have awesome sunsets.
• We have snow. They have monsoons.
• Not weather, but we have bugs. They have spiders and scorpions.
• We have tornados. They have haboobs.

The 8-year-old kid inside of me is giggling uncontrollably at haboob. While it sounds very similar to another word, it actually is an Arabic term for a blowing wind that pickups up sand and dirt on a large-scale. You may have seen pictures of these sand-storms coming into a city. These are haboobs (giggle).

Like haboob (yes, I’m trying to type it a lot), there are other words that sound kinda bad, that really are not. Mental_Floss has an article that defines 50 of them. Here is a subset:

• Aholehole – pronounced “a-holy-holy”, it is a fish native to Hawaii
• Bastinado – a Spanish term for striking the bottom of the feet with a stick or cane
• Clatterfart – gossip
• Cockchafer – a beetle native to Europe and Asia
• Invagination – the process of putting something inside something else (like sheathing a sword)
• Kumbang – a haboob in western Indonesia
• Nicker-Pecker – a woodpecker
• Pissasphalt – similar to tar
• Sack-butt – a wine barrel
• Shittah – a acacia tree
• Tetheradick – the count of 13

Malooba

Malooba sounds vaguely rude, but doesn’t taste that way. Malooba is an Arabic dish made with chicken and rice.

This dish has a very high number of white foods. Chicken, cauliflower, rice and white potatoes.

Cook the chicken.

Soften the rice.

Fry the potato slices and cauliflower.

The potatoes get nice and crisp.

Finally add some color. This is a layered dish. Here is the bottom.

Add the rice.

Pour in the liquids and cook.

Once done, you overturn it on a plate (similar to an upside down cake).

A hearty dish that will stick with you.

Malooba

Prep Time: 1 H | Cook Time: 2 H | Servings: 6 servings | Difficulty:

Ingredients:

1 (4 pound) whole chicken, cut into pieces
6 cups water
1 medium onion, quartered
2 tablespoons ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
3 whole cardamom seeds
4 whole cloves
3 bay leaves
2 1/2 cups uncooked basmati rice, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons ground allspice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large potato, sliced into rounds
1 large head cauliflower, separated into florets
2 medium tomatoes, diced

Directions:

Place chicken in a large pot with 6 cups water, onion, 2 tablespoons allspice, ground cardamom, cardamom seeds, whole cloves and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, and cook until chicken is tender, about 40 minutes. Remove chicken, strain and reserve broth.

Soak the rice in water while waiting for the chicken to cook. When the chicken is almost done, drain the water off, and stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons of allspice.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the potatoes and cauliflower in the hot oil until browned. They do not need to fully cook.

In a separate pot, layer fried potatoes on the bottom. This is done so that the rice will not stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the cauliflower and tomatoes, and sprinkle a handful of rice over the vegetables. Remove the bones from the chicken and place the chicken in the pot. Cover with the rest of the rice. Pour in the reserved broth until it reaches a level about 1/2 inch above the level of the rice. Cover the pot, and cook over medium-low heat for 1 hour, until rice is tender.

When the liquid has absorbed, have a large round tray ready. Uncover the pot, and place the tray over the top. Invert so that the pan is upside down on top of the tray. Let stand for 5 minutes like this, then slowly remove the pot to let the food fall onto the tray.

PREP 1 hr

COOK 2 hrs

READY IN 3 hrs

Nutritional Info: Calories 767 kcal 38%
Carbohydrates 89.9 g 29%
Cholesterol 82 mg 27%
Fat 27.8 g 43%
Fiber 7.7 g 31%
Protein 39 g 78%
Sodium 131 mg 5%

Source: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Malooba/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=allspice&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Recipe%20Hub