Ingredients
The grains
- 400 gbasmati rice
- rinsed and soaked
- 250 gmung beans
- soaked for a few hours
The pot
- 100 gdried shrimp
- rinsed
- 2onions, finely chopped
- 5garlic cloves, crushed
- 3cm ginger, grated
- 3tomatoes, chopped
- 2 tablespoonstomato purée
- 4 tablespoonsghee or oil
- 2 tablespoonsbezar
- or mixed Gulf spice
- 1 teaspoonground turmeric
- 3dried limes, pierced
- 1cinnamon stick
- about 1 litre water
- salt and black pepper
To finish
- fried onions, to scatter
- a little more ghee
To serve
- with dried or fried fish
- or with meat
- with a chopped salad
Directions
- Pierce each one two or three times. Dried limes turn bitter if left too long. Remove them once they have given their flavour. An hour in the pot is quite plenty. Mash is the word for it in the region. Rinse the mung beans thoroughly. Cover them well with cold water. Leave them for a good few hours. Whole mung beans need only a short soak.
- Rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Soak it for a good thirty minutes. Thirty minutes is enough for basmati. Rinse the dried shrimp under cold water. Do not soak them for very long. Drain all the soaked mung beans. Put them in a pot with fresh water.
- Simmer them for about twenty minutes. They should be nearly tender by then. Take them off slightly underdone. Draining them is straightforward enough. Drain all the part-cooked beans. Set them aside for the rice pot.
- Heat the ghee in a large heavy pot. Add the finely chopped onions. Cook them for a good ten minutes. Let them turn a deep golden brown. Do not rush this stage at all. Add the garlic and the grated ginger.
- Cook them for two more full minutes. Add the dried shrimp to the pot. Fry them for about three minutes. Add the bezar and the turmeric. Fry them for about thirty seconds. Add the chopped tomatoes to the pot. Add the tomato purée along with them.
- Cook them down for about eight minutes. The tomato must cook right down. Oil should separate at the edges. Raw tomato taste should be entirely gone. Add the part-cooked mung beans. Add the pierced dried limes to it. Add the cinnamon stick to the pot. Pour in all of the measured water.
- Season it with salt and black pepper. Bring it up to a gentle simmer. Taste the liquid before adding more. Simmering it takes fifteen minutes. Let it simmer for about fifteen minutes. Taste the liquid and adjust it. It takes all its seasoning from it.
- Season it properly before the rice goes in. Drain the soaked rice thoroughly. Add it all to the pot at once. Stir it once to distribute it. There should be enough to cook the rice. Add hot water if it looks short. Cooking the rice takes about twenty minutes. Bring the pot up to a full boil. Let it cook for about eighteen minutes. The rice must steam rather than boil.
- Take it off the heat with the lid on. Let it stand for ten full minutes. The grains firm up as they settle. Take out the cinnamon stick as well. Dried limes turn bitter if left in. Take them all out before serving. Bring the beans up through the grains. Lift and fold rather than stirring. Judging it takes a careful look.
- Scatter fried onions over the top. Serving it is always done hot. Spoon it out into a wide dish. Serve dried or fried fish alongside. Add a chopped salad on the table. It keeps three days refrigerated. Steam it again gently to reheat.
Technique
- The atlas carries three close relatives: mumawash from Kuwait, mseto from Zanzibar and mucapata from Mozambique, all rice cooked with mung beans and descended from khichdi by way of the Gujarat trade. This one uses no coconut at all — dried shrimp, Gulf spices and dried lime give it its distinctly Kuwaiti character.
- Pierce each dried lime two or three times before it goes in, since a whole one floats and stays sealed; and fish them out before serving, since they turn bitter if left too long and are unpleasant to bite into.
- Rinse the dried shrimp rather than soaking them, since long soaking washes out their flavour and they soften in the pot anyway. They bring a lot of salt, so taste the liquid before adding any more — and season it properly before the rice goes in, since the rice takes all its seasoning from that liquid.
Substitutions
- Oil stands in for ghee, though ghee gives the richer result.
- Bezar, the Gulf spice mixture, is blended differently by every household.
Variations
- Kuwait Bay has been fished for a long time and shrimp and fish were preserved by drying, which runs through Kuwaiti cooking.
- It sits between a pilaf and a porridge, softer than a plain pilaf but with the grains still distinguishable.
- Take the mung beans off slightly underdone before they go in with the rice.
History
Rice and mung beans cooked together and served with dried fish or meat.
Frequently asked questions
What is Mumawash?
Mumawash is a main from Kuwait: rice with mung beans, dried shrimp and spices. Rice and mung beans cooked together and served with dried fish or meat.
How long does Mumawash take to make?
Mumawash takes 20 minutes plus soaking of preparation and 1 hour of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.
What can I substitute in Mumawash?
Yes, within limits. Oil stands in for ghee, though ghee gives the richer result. Bezar, the Gulf spice mixture, is blended differently by every household.
What is the most important thing to get right in Mumawash?
Rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Soak it for a good thirty minutes. Thirty minutes is enough for basmati. Rinse the dried shrimp under cold water. Do not soak them for very long. Drain all the soaked mung beans. Put them in a pot with fresh water.
