Omani recipe
How to make Kahwa (Omani coffee)
قهوة
All of Oman; offered to every guest
Lightly roasted coffee boiled with plenty of cardamom, and sometimes rosewater or saffron, poured from a tall brass pot called a dallah into tiny cups without handles. It is golden to light brown, bitter and fragrant, and is always drunk with dates or halwa.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons lightly roasted Arabic coffee, coarsely ground
- 1 tablespoon cardamom pods, lightly crushed, or 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 750 ml water
- A few strands of saffron and ½ teaspoon rosewater (optional)
- To serve: fresh dates
Method
- Bring the water to the boil in a small pot. Add the coffee, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Take the pot off the heat and leave it for 1 minute so the grounds settle.
- Add the cardamom, and the saffron and rosewater if you use them, and simmer for 2 more minutes.
- Leave to settle again, then pour slowly through a fine strainer into a flask or dallah, leaving the grounds behind.
- Serve in small cups, filled only a third of the way, with dates on the side.
Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.
The host pours only a small amount at a time and refills your cup until you gently shake it from side to side to show you have had enough.
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