Omani recipe
How to make Harees
هريس
All of Oman and the Gulf; made in Ramadan, for Eid and for weddings
Whole wheat grains cooked very slowly with lamb or chicken and water until the meat melts and the mixture is beaten into a smooth, thick porridge. It is served in a shallow dish with a pool of melted ghee on top and sometimes a little cinnamon.
Ingredients
- 400 g whole wheat grains (harees wheat or pearled wheat), soaked overnight
- 700 g boneless lamb or chicken, in large pieces
- 1 cinnamon stick and 3 cardamom pods
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 tablespoons ghee or butter, melted
- A pinch of ground cinnamon to serve
Method
- Drain the wheat. Put the meat, cinnamon stick and cardamom in a large, heavy pot with 2 litres of water, bring to the boil and skim off the foam.
- Add the wheat, cover and simmer on a very low heat for 3 hours, stirring now and then and adding hot water if it gets too thick.
- Remove the whole spices and the bones, if any. Add the salt.
- Beat the mixture hard with a wooden spoon or a hand blender until the meat and wheat become a smooth, stretchy porridge.
- Spoon into bowls, make a hollow in the middle and pour in the melted ghee. Dust with cinnamon and serve hot.
Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.
Harees is one of the oldest dishes of the Arab world: it appears in Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's 10th-century cookbook from Baghdad. In 2023 UNESCO added harees, shared by Oman and six other Arab countries, to its list of intangible cultural heritage.
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