As I post these recipes you may notice that I use a lot of butter. If you're concerned about that, follow this link to read more about some of the actual health BENEFITS. Of course everyone knows that butter makes it better. There simply is not a good substitute for the real, rich, creamy, golden goodness of butter.
Hushwe is a traditional Lebanese dish that John grew up eating. I have to be honest...I did not like this dish the first two times I tried it. Now it is one of my all time favorites. The reason it took me a minute to get on-board is that this dish is seasoned with cinnamon. According to my American palette, cinnamon has always and only been associated with apple pie, oatmeal, or deserts...definitely not combined with meat or savory things. Once my mind was able to get past that mental block, I was able to really enjoy it and now I love it.
I used my knowledge of how hushwe is made based on watching family members cook it and also took some tips from Maureen Abood's blog.
Ingredients:
- Split Chicken Breast (many recipes call for roasting a whole chicken but this is just way too much for our family)
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 cup slivered almonds (pine-nuts are delicious, of course, but much more expensive. You can just use almonds or use a combination of both)
- 1 cup rice (I used basmati but long grain white is what Maureen Abood calls for. I wouldn't reccomend using brown rice - it will not be the right taste or texture.)
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 stick of butter
- 1/4 cup lemon juice or 1/2 fresh squeezed lemon
- 1/2 tbls cinnamon
- 1 sweet onion
Salt, pepper, paprika, olive oil
The chicken breast will take longer to cook so prepare it first. I roughly chopped one sweet onion, drizzled olive oil in the bottom of a baking pan, and spread the onion in the baking pan as a bed for the chicken. Put the chicken on the bed of onions and squeeze or drizzle the lemon juice and about 2 tbls olive oil over the chicken, and then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and paprika. I like a lot of paprika. I wanted to bake my chicken "low and slow" so it would be moist. Also, to keep it moist i added about 1/2 cup water to the baking dish and made sure it was covered while baking. I baked it at 300 degrees for close to two hours. I turned up the heat at the end to crisp up the skin a bit. I baked it at 400 for about twenty minutes at the end, uncovered, then took it out and let it rest.
While the chicken was baking I made the hushwe. I started by frying the slivered almonds in butter. With the heat on medium I added about 3 tablespoons butter to the pan, once it was melted I added the slivered almonds. Stay on your toes here! I almost always burn nuts when I am trying to toast them. This is more than toasting, pretty much frying, and you're going a little past the golden stage to a nice brown but not burnt! Once done pour the nuts out of the pan onto a plate and set aside.
Then add your ground beef to the pan and brown it. Season with salt and pepper and the cinnamon. Break it up to a fine texture. Add 3 tablespoons butter and the dry rice to the pan (make sure you're using a pan big enough to accommodate the beef and rice, remembering rice will expand while cooking). Cook the rice in the pan a minute or so letting it soak up some of the butter, then pour in the chicken broth. Bring to boiling them reduce to low and cover. Cook for about 20 mintues until the rice is done and the broth is absorbed.
Add the remaining butter to the finished dish, mixing it thoroughly throughout the beef and rice. Add most of the nuts and stir them in too, but keep a few to sprinkle on top. Shred the chicken off the bone and put on top of the hushwe.
Enjoy this buttery and satisfying meal! It's great for cold weather!
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