Khiar Mahshi: Stuffed, Cooked Cucumbers in Tamarind Sauce

Ammar and Hadeel, without whom I'd never have learnt to cook or stuff a cucumber

This dish, our friend Ammar's favourite, consists of stuffed, cooked cucumbers in a tamarind sauce, from the West Bank town of Nablus. This dish is so unique to the town and, within the town, the use of tamarind sauce is in itself so unusual, that when I mentioned my learning Arabic cooking which required that you stuff everything - even cucumbers! - at an otherwise all-male work get-together in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, Ead's face lit up and he said, "I know where they are from! That's MY town! - Nablus! Right?" 


One of the fascinating facets of life in Saudi Arabia is that  although restaurants are separated into "Male" sections and "Family" sections, the addition of one woman to a large contingent of males automatically means that you get ushered in to the Family section. When we first began working in Saudi, pre-kids, my husband always took me along whenever he was invited out to supper, and he found it extremely funny that my mere presence alone was all that it took to convert a large group of disparate men into a "Family" group. That said, the  Family sections tended to be much more comfortable and beautifully decorated, so the move inside was often appreciated, particularly by those on 'bachelor' status (i.e., those expatriates who were not allowed to bring their wives into the country). 

Food can be such a bonding experience; after that evening, Wahid with whom my husband worked remarked to a group of men at the office that my husband was "becoming one of us - he's even eating Arabic food at home," and they all chortled heartily at the concept. 

This dish also has a particular story in that I was taught it by Hadeel when both she and Ammar lived in Saudi Arabia. We were all staying at Al Yamamas compound at the time, which compound is not far from the Oasis compound at which the Khobar massacre took place some years later, and which I have written about my responses to it are documented here. Anyhow, the point is that Hadeel and Ammar's insights and humour, both generously shared, where what helped us keep our sense of sanity intact during those bleak days. 

Hadeel and Ammar are of Palestinian origin, although their parents fled Palestine in 1947 and hence they were born in Jordan. After Hadeel married Ammar, she discovered that this was his favourite dish, cooked specially for him by an aunt of his, and hence she learnt to make Khiar Mahshi for him. Therefore, when I first started learning cuisine from the people staying in Al Yamamas (and a non-food story from those days is found here), Ammar insisted, rightly, that I learn to cook his very favourite dish. 

What is even more fascinating from a blog point of view is that when I first made the blog and published the recipe online, a search was undertaken to see what slight variations may be found online, and it was then discovered that it had not previously been documented in English on the internet. When I mentioned this to Hadeel and Ammar, they in turn alerted their friends and within a two-day period it felt as if the entire Palestinian Diaspora or at least those hailing originally from Nablus, came to the site, which gave the blog a huge initial lift or spike in traffic. 

While initial traffic to the blog may be gratifying, how much more valuable and real is it to know that, thanks to this friendship, a fascinating and delicious piece of culinary history has been documented. Now that - and the friendship that underlay it - are really worth celebrating. 

Khiar Mahshi

Time taken: at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours (estimated). It's a weekend "feast" dish - not everyday fare, mainly because of the time taken to core and fill the cucumbers, particularly if there are a number of people, which is when you'd normally make it. You can core and stuff the cucumbers and even cook them in oil in advance, then only put them on the stove an hour or so before you anticipate sitting down for dinner. 

This is for four people - budget on between three to four cucumbers per normal appetite. Some of us have been known to consume up to eleven cucumbers at a time, but even Ammar has to concede that that is most unusual. Fem would happily eat six, I found the fourth difficult to finish, though it was utterly delicious.

Specialist equipment: A vegetable corer is essential. It is not unlike, but longer than an apple corer, but instead of being a complete circle, attached to the wooden handle is only a half-moon shape of metal with sharp edges about 10 cm long, and with a sharp edge on the end. 


A pestle and mortar will make crushing the garlic easier.

Khiar Mahshi Recipe

14 straightish cucumbers, of about 10-12 cm in length.
2 to 2 and a 1/2 cups of something like "Uncle Ben's" long grain American rice soaked for 15 minutes in warm water.

100g - 200g Mutton mince (or ground mutton to the Americans and yes, you can get it in SA shops - the variation in the amount depends on how 'meaty' you want it - Ammar complained at the 100g amount). You can substitute with beef mince, but mutton is traditional. 

Salt.

Pepper - finely ground - not coarse.

Mixed meat spice (for mutton - I have some from Hadeel and will try to disaggregate its constituent ingredients sometime.) Whatever spice you do put in - use it lightly, or even use none - you don't want it to overwhelm the other, milder tastes of the tamarind, for instance. 

1 tbs oil or ghee (though ghee was originally specific to North India, it seems to be increasingly incorporated into Arabic food).

Buy yourself some nice straight cucumbers of about 10 - 12 cms in length. In fact, we'd advise that you take the corer with you to the shops initially to ascertain the length cucumber you should buy, which should be only slightly longer than the corer you have. Shorter and fatter would be preferable to longer and thinner in this case. Lop off one end of the cucumber. Insert corer into the very middle, and holding the cucumber in the one hand, keep spinning the corer around from the middle out until you have a thin layer of flesh and skin left on the perimeter (again, this is partly a matter of liking - some people leave quite a thick layer on the outside, as they prefer it. Thinner is more traditional, however.) 

Coring the cucumber 

Try not to pierce the skin of the cucumber with the sharp implement. Set aside the flesh that is removed for the yoghurt dressing.

Do not do this at home! Splitting the cucumber with poor coring skills

Drain rice, mix into it all other ingredients. Stuff cucumbers with the rice mixture, making sure you don't compact them at all, else the cucumbers will split and burst. Pack rice in gently but firmly, shaking cucumbers up and down to settle the rice in making sure that there is half a little finger's worth of room at the lopped-off cucumber end for the rice to swell out into.

In large deep pan with corn oil pre-heated to sizzling when anything is added to it, fry the cucumbers to a deep golden brown colour. You will have to adjust the heat of the hot plate downwards from 6 as you cook. Turn them over a few times, this is preparatory to your other cooking, and to ensure their skins are properly cooked. Drain on paper towels. Set aside.

Tamarind Sauce:

150 gram compacted tamarind paste (you get them in blocks, like date paste blocks)

Water - 2-3 cups thereof (see below for how to measure water level)

Salt

1 giant clove of garlic, or up to 7 of the small cloves - or to personal preference.

Add water to the crumbled up tamarind paste so it becomes pulpy - you have to leave it soaking for a good half hour and usually will have to strain it through a wire mesh seive with a wooden spoon to extract the maximum amount from it. 


Crush 1 extra large clove of garlic in a pestle and mortar. Add salt - to taste, maybe a teaspoon or two, and add to the tamarind sauce.

Place at bottom of large, deep cooking pot, into which you place all the cucumbers, in layers. If you have three layers, the tamarind sauce should be at the level of the second layer, so you can add water if needed. So rather be more sparing with water you use for the sauce than have a heavy hand.

Cucumbers in tamarind sauce - but they should have been fried first. Oops!

Bring to boil, then reduce to a simmer, cook for between 30 and 45 minutes, until done. Just put the lid on, and leave them - if you move the cucumbers around, you will have them split on you, so have them simmering quietly away on 2 or 3 on a hot plate.

When done, the cucumbers will easily be pierced by a fork. Some of them may have swelled and split a bit, thereby absorbing more of the tamarind sauce, particularly those towards the bottom. These are the ones Ammar particularly likes, and hence was very pleased by my amateur efforts with the vegetable corer.

Khiar Mahshi: stuffed cooked cucumbers in tamarind sauce

Yoghurt Dressing

Take cucumber innards and chop them up further. Add one very large clove garlic crushed in pestle and mortar. Stir into a large pot of plain yoghurt. Serve with the khiar mahshi.

Typically, you would serve it also with tabouleh, the delightful and fresh Lebanese parsley salad.