Rice Me’ammar
By shahdan • May 16, 2020
4 servings
30 min
Easy
Traditional Rice Me’ammar is always a great crowd pleaser on the table. It is creamy, delicious and definitely an easy dish to prepare. The most challenging part however is the oven baking which might require your full attention, especially if you are baking this dish for the first time and still getting to know your oven.
Here are some tips for a delicious Rice Beraam/Tajin:
- I find it easier (and tastier) to bake it two hours before serving then cover and set aside in a warm place for another hour in order to keep it soft and moist.
- The classic rice to liquid ratio is 1:2, being one portion rice to two portions liquid.
- If you like your rice less moist, make the ratio 1 rice to 1.5 liquid.
- The liquid could be milk only, milk and stock, or milk and water.
- Use Egyptian rice for this recipe. If you live abroad and don’t have Egyptian rice, you can use Pudding Rice, Paella Rice or Arborio Rice. Long grain and Basmati rice will not work for this recipe.
- Using fresh milk is better than pasteurised especially if you are not adding thick cream قشطة on top.
- You can add a boiled chicken layer in the middle of the rice.
- Finally you can use a traditional beraam or just any oven dish like pyrex. Most importantly, don’t over-fill it because rice and milk will rise in the oven.
Ingredients
- 2 cup rice (Egyptian rice) - أرز
- 3 3/4 cup full cream milk - لبن كامل الدسم
- 1/4 cup cooking cream - كريم الطهي
- 2 pod cardamom - حبهان
- 2 pod mastic / mesteka - مستكة
- 2 medium bay leaves - ورق لاورا
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon powder - قرفة
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg - جوزة الطيب
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper - فلفل أسود
- 1 teaspoon salt - ملح
- 1 pinch sugar (optional) - سكر
- 1 tablespoon butter (plus extra to grease oven dish) - زبدة
- 2 tablespoon cream (optional) - قشطة
Step by step
- Soak rice for an hour. Drain and set aside.
- Lightly brush the oven dish with butter. Place drained rice in the dish.
- Place milk in a pot. Use a pestle and mortar ايد الهون to break cardamom and mastic then add to the milk with all other spices, and butter.
- Gently heat milk to infuse it with all the spice flavours until hot but not boiling.
- Add cream to the warm milk. Use a sieve to pour the spice infused milk over the rice and mix gently.
- Add cream on top (if using any).
- Bake in a 200C preheated oven with grill on for about 15 minutes or until the top is bubbly and nicely browned, then turn of grill and lower heat to 180, and bake for another 30- 45 minutes (depending on your oven, and the width of the dish) until all liquid is absorbed and rice is soft. You can check from the sides.
- Cover with foil and keep in a warm place until serving time.
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