Mulukhiyah: Egyptian Potherb Soup or Jew's Mallow

Here we go, into the world of food blogging!

Mulukhiyah had to be the first recipe I post. It's by far the most popular dish in Egypt, right behind the Fool Medammes I suppose. It might as well be our national dish. I don't think I've ever met an Egyptian who doesn't like having Mulukhiyah for lunch. And since it's got quite a strong aroma, whenever your neighbors are cooking it you will know and you'll most definitely find yourself cooking it the next day. It's contagious, I tell you.
The wonderful smell of the garlic and coriander mixture of the "Add-ha" lets everybody know that Mulukhiyah is for lunch!



In Egypt and the Middle East, it's mostly prepared as a green soup wherein the mallow leaves are very finely chopped, and added to meat or chicken stock. It's eaten with rice and a source of protein, which could be meat, chicken or even rabbits. But never with fish. Although in Alexandria people would actually eat it with shrimp, but I refuse to even taste that. Ha ha!

Fresh or frozen Mulukhiyah leaves can be used for this recipe. Although if you have an Egyptian grandmother like mine she would probably disown you if you use frozen.
The fresh leaves are time consuming, you wash the stems very thoroughly, pick the leaves off the stems and chop them so very finely (or even mince them to death) before starting to cook them. So I choose frozen or ask my grandma to do all the dirty work for me (I store them in ziplocks in the freezer), which thankfully pleases her oh-so-much. I'm blessed!

Sometimes found fresh in US at Middle Eastern markets, but probably more available frozen.


Now don't forget to cook rice next to the Mulukhiyah, or you can eat it with Pita bread, but rice sits well with it.

MULUKHIYAH:

400g Fresh or Frozen Mulukhiyah (Finely minced and thawed if frozen)
1 1/2 Cups Chicken Stock (Meat or Chicken Stock is fine, I use Chicken)
1/4 teaspoon Salt (or to taste)


ADD-HA:

2 Tablespoons unsalted Butter
1 Tablespoon Garlic (minced)
1 Tablespoon Coriander Powder


For the Mulukhiyah:

1. Pour chicken stock into a medium sized pot, bring to boil.

2. Put heat on low, add thawed Mulukhiyah.



3. This is the tricky part: Making sure the mixture doesn't start boiling, with a hand whisk keep stirring until soup is formed and no lumps are to be found.



4. Add Salt, cover and set aside.


For the Add-ha:

1. In a small skillet on medium heat mix together butter, garlic and coriander powder. Stirring constantly until mixture is all bubbly and garlic is light golden. Don't burn the garlic.




2. Now heat the Mulukhiyah soup but don't let it boil, we want it very hot but not boiling so you might want to keep stirring it.
3. Pour the hot Add-ha onto the soup.

4. With a ladle pour some of the soup into the Add-ha skillet to get all the Add-ha you can into the soup.

4. Stir the soup until well combined, take off heat.



To serve it:

1. Have a bowl of rice ready.

2. Using your ladle, pour the amount of Mulukhiyah you prefer on top of the rice.


I usually like to add a small amount of Mulukhiyah, mix it with the rice and have the meat on the side, but Mr.WD40 likes to pour a large amount on the rice and top it with pieces of red sauce meat. (As shown in the first picture at the top.)

I'll be posting the red sauce meat recipe.