“Barbara! Barbara!”
During any visit to the Lebanese wholesaler Harkola, we’re likely to hear someone calling for Barbara. And that’s because she’s wonderful – she knows how much the dates are, she knows where to find the pearl barley and, as we found out on our last visit, she knows a great recipe for moghrabieh.
Moghrabieh is Lebanese couscous – an unusually firm pasta which needs to be boiled in water for up to half an hour before it can be eaten. Harkola are the Australian importers, which means a kilo packet from them costs $4, as opposed to the $11 I’ve seen it on sale for in local foodie stores.
When Barbara saw me putting a packet of moghrabieh into our trolley, she offered me her recipe, commonly eaten in the Lebanese community as a late breakfast. Here are the instructions as they were told to me..
1. Soak a large quantity of dried chick peas overnight, then boil them in a large pot with plenty of salted water until just tender. (I added salt at the end, as I didn’t want to toughen the skins). Drain well. Tinned chick peas can also be used, drain them well, but don’t rinse them.
2. Bring another large pot of salted water to the boil, and cook the moghrabieh until soft (this took about 25 minutes), but not mushy. Drain well and sprinkle over with a good pinch each of ground caraway, ground cinnamon and ground allspice.
3. In a large frying pan or saute pan, fry a large quantity of sliced onion until soft in plenty of oil, then add both the chick peas and moghrabieh and toss to combine and heat through. Season with more salt to taste. Serve warm with pita bread.
One thing I should mention – Barbara’s instruction was to use the whole packet of moghrabieh. Now, that’s probably fine if you’re feeding a large extended family, but in our case, it resulted in an enormous quantity of food which needed to be shared out to friends and neighbours. The flavour of the dish is subtle and delicious, with a lovely sweetness from the fried onions. I added more of the ground spices during the frying process, but they didn’t seemed to overpower the dish. This is definitely a recipe we’ll make again!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Sounds heavenly!
Oh how I wish I were your neighbour!
Do they advertise that you are part of the bargain when selling a house on your street? (” And of course, you will be living only a stone’s throw away from the marvelous cook and baker, Celia!”)
I’m going to see if I can find this in a Lebanese diner and try it there first. My neighbours love to share my baking – but are very mid-American in their food choices.
Hi,
that looks wonderful. Maybe the woman, who has a stand at our weekly market, sells it. She is Turkish and sells all kinds of couscous, bulgur etc. Thanks for the recipe.
I’d be all over that!
Glad you met Barbara…this is a new take on that couscous and sounds interesting enough to try.
I have a question. In the US Allspice grows on a tree and is a dried berry, looks like a large pepper corn and smells like a number of spices combined. Pimento is a red pepper fruit of a bush which is dried and then ground to a red pepper, sometimes sweet and sometimes hot. Please clarify “ground allspice (pimento)” for me…Thanks
Heidi, hope you find this to try – it’s delicious! I wish you were my neighbour too! :)
Monique, thank you – I believe it might be known in some parts of the world as Israeli couscous…
Marilyn, I was! I think you’d love these flavours! :)
Patricia, the recipe refers to ground allspice berries, also known here as pimento. There’s information here and here. The red peppers you refer to are known here as cherry peppers.
I’ve edited the post to remove the confusion, thank you.
Celia I’m with Heidi. I think any real estate selling, it would be a selling point to be even within a few blocks of you!!
I haven’t cooked with this pasta before, looks tasty though.
Celia, I think to make everyone happy we will need to build a commune in your neighbourhood with you in the middle. That way Heidi and I and everyone else can have fair shares of yumminess – oh, and you of course!
How lovely of Barbara to give you her recipe. It can be intimidating to try new ingredients so when you get a tried and true solution it makes it much easier.
I second Intolerant Chef – bring back the commune with you in the middle ;)
How good does Moghrabieh sound, I’ve never tried Lebanese couscous but I know I’d like it. Looks interesting to huh :)
Very interesting recipe, I would love to make it, I think I can find Lebanese couscous here rather easily
I am curious, though – did you have it for breakfast, or you served as a side dish with a full meal?
For some reason I envision a roast chicken sitting next to it… :-)
I am house hunting at the moment and despite being in Brisbane I’d be very happy to relocate if it meant being your neighbour!
I love moghrabieh. It really makes more of an impact than cous cous if you need to make a special salad, too.
I love Lebanese couscous! Something about munching on balls of goodness. In hang on that sounded dodgy didn’t it? Oops!!
Yum, 1 kg of Moghrabieh! I wish I was your neighbour too! I’ve been trying to go to harkola every time we spend a weekend in Sydney but have always failed. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us.
*Hangs head in shame* – I have never eaten Moghrabieh. It sounds fabulous though. Hopefully I will be able to source it at home later this year.
:-) Mandy
what an interesting ingredient.
Your family seem happy to enjoy such variety, Celia.
I have never even heard of that grain before. I am always scared of buying things I have never heard of.
Wow! Just read your post about this supplier. The dish looks great, but the place sounds fantastic! I think maybe when the weather cools down, the mother-in-law, husband and I might make an expedition…
Brydie, Becca, Soy & Anna, thank you all, wouldn’t it be lovely if you were all close by? Not that you’re that far away, in global terms.. :)
Anna, the moghrabieh isn’t hard to find, although it can be expensive if you’re not buying it from Harkola! It’s an interesting pasta – it needs boiling for ages and ages, but can then be added to a stew and cooked longer again without losing its shape!
Sally, I don’t think I’ve conveyed how much we ended up making! We ate it for just about every meal for two days! :) I took it to dinner at Kevin and Carol’s as well the first night, and it was the perfect accompaniment to Carol’s lamb biryani (culturally incongruous, I know, but the flavours went brilliantly together!).
Gill, thank you – they don’t always enjoy it all, but they’ll generally try everything!
Susan, I’m the opposite, I’m always coming home with strange ingredients, often with foreign language instructions that I can’t decipher! :)
MamaV, you would loooove Harkola. It’s such an interesting place. They’re open Saturday mornings too, which makes it very convenient.
I love moghrabieh too! I’ve only cooked with a handful of times but I really love the slightly chewy texture – and I agree with Amanda that it makes more of an impact for a special dish than standard couscous.
This looks delicious.
Sounds lovely, would it be similar to the Israeli couscous I’ve seen in NZ?
Viki, I think the mohgrabieh might be larger – they’re about 4 – 5mm in diameter. I think Israeli couscous is a bit finer?