Margoog

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 gwholemeal flour
• or half wholemeal and half white
• 1 teaspoonsalt
• about 300 ml warm water
• 2 tablespoonsoil

Meat

• 1 kglamb on the bone
• in large pieces
• 3 tablespoonsghee or oil
• 2onions, chopped
• 6garlic cloves, crushed

The pot

• 4tomatoes, chopped
• 3 tablespoonstomato purée
• 2 tablespoonsbaharat
• 1 teaspoonground turmeric
• 2dried limes, pierced
• 3carrots, in chunks
• 2courgettes, in chunks
• 1small pumpkin, in chunks
• 2potatoes, in chunks
• about 2.5 litres water
• salt and black pepper

To serve

• in one large bowl
• with a spoon or bread
• a chopped salad

Directions

1. Put the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle of it. Add warm water gradually as you work. Bring it together into a firm dough. It should be firm rather than soft. Knead it for a good ten minutes. It should become smooth and elastic.
2. Wrap the dough and let it rest. Give it at least thirty minutes. Heat the ghee in a very large pot. Add the lamb pieces in batches. Brown them well on all of their sides. Do not crowd the pot at any point. Add the chopped onions to the pot. Cook them for a good ten minutes. Add the crushed garlic to them.
3. Cook it for two more full minutes. Add the baharat and the turmeric. Fry them for thirty seconds only. Add the chopped tomatoes to the pot. Add the tomato purée along with them.
4. Cook them down for about eight minutes. Put the browned lamb back in the pot. Add the pierced dried limes to it. Add the water and a little salt. Bring it up to a gentle simmer. Cover the pot and let it cook on. Give it at least ninety full minutes. Cook it on if it still resists.
5. Add the carrots and the potatoes first. Give them about ten full minutes. Add the pumpkin and the courgettes. Give them about eight minutes. Divide the dough into several pieces. Roll each one out very thin indeed.
6. Take it down to about two millimetres. It should be nearly translucent. Cut the sheets into rough squares. The pieces do not need to be neat. Drop the pieces into the simmering pot. Add them in only a few at a time. Cooking them takes twenty minutes. Cover the pot and simmer it gently. Give the dough about twenty minutes.
7. Stir it gently every now and then. Stir gently rather than vigorously. Turn it over rather than stirring. Judging the dough takes a taste. Add hot water if it goes too far. Taste it and adjust the salt as needed. Add plenty of black pepper as well. They turn bitter if left in too long.
8. Remove them once they have given their flavour. Serving it is done in one large bowl. Ladle it into a wide communal bowl. Serve bread alongside it as well. Add a chopped salad on the table. It keeps three days refrigerated.

Technique

• The atlas also carries marqooqa from Qatar: essentially the same dish, with both names coming from the same Arabic root relating to making something thin. The Saudi version tends to use discs of dough and the Qatari to tear sheets straight in, and the vegetables vary by region and season, but the principle is the same.
• Starch leaches out of the thin dough as it cooks and thickens the surrounding broth, taking the stew from soupy to substantial; it is the same principle as a dumpling, and the dough needs about twenty minutes — earlier and it disintegrates, later and it stays raw.
• The dough must rest at least half an hour before rolling, since unrested dough springs back constantly and cannot be rolled thin at all; and it must be genuinely thin, around two millimetres, since thick dough gives heavy stodgy pieces.

Substitutions

• Half white flour alongside the wholemeal makes the dough easier to roll thin.
• A pasta machine rolls the sheets far thinner than a rolling pin.

Variations

• Marqooqa in Qatar is essentially the same dish under a spelling variant.
• The vegetables vary with the season, with pumpkin, courgette, carrot and potato usual.
• Some cooks cut the dough into neat discs and others tear it roughly.

History

Meat and vegetable stew with rounds of dough dropped in, which thicken the broth as they cook.

Frequently asked questions

What is Margoog?

Margoog is a soup & stew from Saudi Arabia: vegetable-lamb stew simmered with thin whole-wheat dough sheets. Meat and vegetable stew with rounds of dough dropped in, which thicken the broth as they cook.

How long does Margoog take to make?

Margoog takes 45 minutes plus resting of preparation and 2 hours of cooking. The recipe makes serves 8. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Margoog?

Yes, within limits. Half white flour alongside the wholemeal makes the dough easier to roll thin. A pasta machine rolls the sheets far thinner than a rolling pin.

What is the most important thing to get right in Margoog?

Put the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle of it. Add warm water gradually as you work. Bring it together into a firm dough. It should be firm rather than soft. Knead it for a good ten minutes. It should become smooth and elastic.