Heshwah Recipe

I can't leave the Roz bi Shaghria recipe hanging without a recipe for the spiced meat and nut mixture, heshwah, which adorns it. Of course you can eat the roz alone, but heshwah makes it flavorful and beguiling, while adding proteins. My husband fell off the Atkins wagon last time I made heshwah with roz.

Heshwah - spiced meat mixture

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup pine nuts, almonds, pistachios, or combination
1 onion, finely chopped
about 5 oz ground lean beef, lamb, or even turkey
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
salt to taste   

Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat and saute the nuts in it, stirring regularly, until they become golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and put to drain onto a double layer of paper towels.

Add onion, fry until golden. Then add ground meat and cook until it loses all traces of pink. Stir and separate meat well so it does not form lumps. Remove from heat and season with cinnamon, allspice, pepper and salt to taste. Mix in the nuts and adjust seasonings if needed.

Sprinkle the meat mixture over the hot rice on a large platter.

Note - if you want to stuff grape leaves, tomatos, peppers, zucchini or cabbage, add this heshwah to uncooked rice with a bit of tomato sauce. In this case, omit the nuts.

Update: picture here.

Comments

[Peter]

Last night I made a very simple dinner: ground lamb, chopped onion, chopped parsley, and the Sadaf "ground meat spice" mixture that I picked up on a whim at the market. The spice mixture directions were to soak in water, then add to the ground meat and marinate for 15 minutes. I then made patties (hamburger-shaped ones without the spice mixture for the kids, more oblong ones for us, so I could tell the difference) and cooked them on the grill. It was very tasty. Served with pita and yogurt.

The recipe without the spice mixture came from Claudia Roden's cookbook (thanks, Leila!)...it is one of the few things I make that both of the kids love.

[Leila]

What on earth is in the Sadaf spice mixture? Soaking in water sounds extraordinary. I'd ask you to bring me some at Thanksgiving, Pete, but I doubt I'll want to eat it until chemo is over in March.

The ground lamb recipe - would that be kafta? Is it from Claudia's Middle East book (the one both your mom and I gave you - that was entirely my screw-up) or from Jewish Food?

[Peter]

The ingredients are (according to the Sadaf web page): Onion,Salt,Pepper,Sumac,Parsley,Turmeric. I'd never seen one like that that has you soak it beforehand. 5oz of water per 2lbs of meat. Since I already added fresh parsley and onion, really the new flavors were just sumac and turmeric. Had I read the ingredients more carefully, I might not have bought it. Still, the result was very tasty.
http://sadaf.com/store/product101.html

I believe the recipe was indeed one of the kaftas in Claudia's Middle East book, though all our cookbooks are inaccessible at the moment (and may be gone...) so I'm not positive. It's a very simple one--just grated or chopped onions and parsley. I use 1/2 a largeish white onion and "some" parsley. Simple, but everybody loves it.

[Leila]

Note to everybody else - see the kafta in a tray with potatos recipe for a kafta recipe. It's just ground meat mixed with finely chopped onion and parsley, and seasoned with spices of your choice. Kafta kabobs can be grilled alone, on skewers or not, and served on pita bread or rice. My kafta recipe is a more elaborate home-style dish.