Culinary traditions in the region have remained unchanged for many centuries.

Both the methods of cooking and the range of products that form the basis of the Saudi diet are determined by climate and religious canons. Therefore, the dishes that were served at the fabulously rich tables of the sheikhs and satisfied the hunger of simple nomadic shepherds are still present on the menu of modern residents of Saudi Arabia almost in their original form.

First of all, it is worth noting the local variety of pilaf - meklube. In Saudi Arabia, not only meat pilaf is popular, but also its sweet analogues, prepared with the addition of citrus fruits, raisins, dates, dried apricots, pistachios, rose petals and spices. Guests will also be offered kultra (meat on a spit), makbus (meat with spices) and mixed meat meshui meshshakal.

Saudi Arabian Cuisine Recipes. Dishes for the holidays. National New Year's recipes.

Main dishes:

• Kabsa

• Spicy cheese and bean pate
• Arabic hollow flatbread "Pita"
• Lamb and white bean stew
• Kataef
• Arabic rice with a Moscow accent

• Beef kebbe with vegetables

• Shrimp with egg noodles
• Chickpea and lemon soup
• Salad "Oasis"
• Summer salmon tartare
• Arabic omelette
• Libyan flatbread with pepper
• "Baid bi mai" - eggs in water
• "Baklava"
• Sweets "Golden candies"
• Spicy salad with eggplant
• Pie with figs and dates
• Hot "Koshari"
• Pancakes Ataif
• Flatbread "Kabil"
• Arabic macaroons
• Arabic dish "Masfouf"
• Oatmeal cookies with coconut
• Arabic cabbage rolls "Waraa malfouf"
• “guzi” - baked lamb meat

The hit of any feast is kabsa - a dish of rice, meat, a lot of spices with the addition of lemon and tomato paste.

A feature of the local cuisine is the use of not only fresh, but also salted lemons. Moreover, these citrus fruits of a specific taste can be used in two forms: both as ingredients for preparing various dishes, and as a separately served snack.

Poultry dishes are also very popular in Saudi cuisine. Most often on the menu you can find: al-mandi - steamed chicken with honey and spices; haris - chicken casserole; samman - quails prepared in a special way.

The latter dish is considered a signature dish in the country, and both ordinary housewives and chefs of expensive restaurants have their own secrets of preparing it.

Spicy vegetable salads, as well as couscous, tubele and baba ganouzh, are very popular as a side dish in local cuisine. A variety of sauces are also served. Most often it is hummus (thick chickpea paste with the addition of sesame seeds, lemon juice and zest, spices) and additives of fresh pepper and garlic of varying degrees of spiciness.

Various types of spices are widely used in the region. So, the mixture “ras el hanout” is very popular here, which can be translated from Arabic as “owner of the shop.” Indeed, each owner of a stall or spice shop will compose this mixture according to his own taste and understanding, and its composition can include up to fifty different ingredients.

During feasts, local bread, usually baked in the form of flatbreads, is present on the tables in large quantities.

To bake them, the simplest unleavened dough is kneaded, with a little sesame paste or chickpea flour added to the wheat flour. In addition to traditional flatbreads, in Saudi Arabia, whose residents are today recognized as world leaders in the consumption of baked goods, yeast-leavened versions of bread are also baked. For example, khobz bel erfa, a sweet Arabic bread with cinnamon, is very popular here. Also, the menu of any establishment certainly includes pies with various types of fillings.

And, of course, Arabic cuisine means amazing tasting desserts. On tables in Saudi Arabia you can see baklava, Turkish delight and various sorbets in this quality.

Lugaimat, a local variety of donuts, is also popular here. They are made small, the size of a walnut, and eaten with honey or various fruit syrups.

The sweet table is always served with fruits, juices, candied fruits, as well as melons and watermelons.

The favorite drink in the country is coffee, because Saudi Arabia is rightfully considered the birthplace of this drink. It was from Arabia that coffee rituals and traditions originated, which today make up what is called “coffee culture” throughout the world.

Initially, coffee was brewed over a fire built on sand, which today has been replaced by special roasters. But the dala - the coffee pot for brewing - remained unchanged in shape.

Arabic coffee is not particularly strong. To brew it, lightly roasted grains are used, and the cooking process itself lasts about a quarter of an hour. Freshly prepared coffee is poured into a special coffee pot, where a little crushed cardamom is added, and served.

Chapter:
Cuisines of the world
The most notable dishes for the daily and holiday table
This section will help make your table tasty, varied and attractive.
Here, in the selection of national recipes, the quality of the dishes and the convenience of their preparation were taken into account.
Some nations have a lot of such dishes, some have only a few.
See also the section for wonderful national dishes.
For many recipes of national dishes, see the world famous section.
For all the wealth of national cuisines, see the relevant sections

MIDDLE EASTERN ARABIC CUISINE

Despite some differences, the cuisines of the peoples of Arab countries - Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Libya - have many common features, starting with the products they use and ending with the methods of preparing individual dishes.

Arab national cuisine is characterized by the widespread use of lamb, goat meat, veal, poultry, legumes, rice, vegetables, fresh and canned fruits, lactic acid products, and cheese (such as feta cheese). Muslim Arabs do not eat pork. Dishes made from fish and eggs occupy a significant place.

Another distinctive feature of Arab cuisine is the widespread use of large quantities of various spices: onions, garlic, olives, black and red peppers, cinnamon, aromatic herbs, etc. Vegetable oil, mainly olive, is used for cooking.

A common dish among many Arab peoples is wheat or corn porridge - burgul. Porridge made from flour mixed with olive oil and capsicum is also popular. All kinds of fruits and especially dates, which are no less important to them than grains, are widely spread among the residents of Saudi Arabia. Dates are usually made into a paste that can be stored all year round. This paste is sometimes mixed with barley or other flour. Dried and sun-dried dates are very popular.

The traditional drink in Saudi Arabia is coffee. As a rule, coffee is drunk without sugar, but with the addition of spices - cloves and cardamom.

An indispensable part of Yemeni food is helba - a hot sauce made from red pepper, mustard and aromatic herbs. Particularly popular is the dish of young lamb stuffed with rice, raisins, almonds and spices.

Although Yemen supplies many countries with the world's best coffee, Yemenis consume little of it. Their national drink is gishr, a decoction of coffee husks.

In Syria and Lebanon, traditional meat dishes are qubbah - fried or boiled balls of meat, fish, various seasonings, spit-roasted lamb, vegetables stuffed with meat, yakhni - stewed meat with vegetables.

The most common dairy product is Varenets. Cottage cheese, dry cheese, and the soft drink Huneyna are made from it.

The favorite national dishes of the people of Iraq are pilaf made from lamb and rice, to which they usually add raisins, figs and almonds, yakhni; sweet dishes - halva, candied fruits.

Common drinks include black coffee, which is almost always drunk without sugar, but with the addition of saffron and nutmeg, tea, and sour milk diluted with water.

:
Lamb - 150 g, melted butter - 30 g, sweet pepper - 150 g, onion - 20 g, wheat flour - 10 g, tomatoes - 20 g or tomato sauce - 20 g, rice - 10 g, sour milk - 50 g, egg - 1/2 pcs., ground red pepper, ground black pepper, parsley - 5 g.

Finely chopped onions are sauteed in butter until golden brown, add ground red pepper, sorted and washed rice, add tomato sauce and a little water and cook for 10-15 minutes.
Rice cooked until half cooked is mixed with chopped meat, salted, sprinkled with ground black pepper and parsley.
Cut the upper wide part of the pod, bend it in the form of a cap, and carefully remove the stem with the seeds.
The pods are filled with prepared minced meat, fried in boiling oil so that they lose the smell of raw vegetables, placed in a pan, poured with sauce and simmered at low boil until cooked.
Preparing the sauce.
Sauté onions in oil, add flour, ground red pepper, tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces, add warm water or broth and salt to taste.
Stuffed peppers are served with sour milk.
Preparation of sour milk.
Pour the eggs and the sauce in which the pepper was stewed into the sour milk, stirring the resulting mixture, keep it on the fire, without bringing to a boil, until it thickens, filter through a sieve and sprinkle with parsley.

:
Lamb - 180 g, zucchini - 250 g, onions - 20 g, wheat flour - 5 g, tomatoes - 20 g or tomato sauce - 30 g, melted butter - 20 g, sour milk - 50 g, rice - 10 g, egg - 1/2 pcs., ground red pepper, ground black pepper, parsley - 5 g.

National cuisine of Saudi Arabia

Not a single feast in Saudi Arabia is complete without the national dish “burgul”. This original name is given to porridge made from corn or wheat grits with the obligatory addition of sour milk. Also a popular dish, especially among the southern peoples of Saudi Arabia, is flour porridge with the addition of olive oil and pepper.

Local restaurants are happy to provide their customers with the famous national dish “guzi” - it includes baked lamb meat, generously seasoned with special spices, rice and nuts.

All kinds of fruits and vegetables occupy a large share in the diet of Saudi Arabian residents. Dates and figs are especially popular here.

Coffee has become a traditional drink for conversation. It is prepared in a special way and consumed in miniature cups. Since the local drink is very strong, it is better for tourists who are not accustomed to it to limit its consumption.

Dishes made from fermented milk products are especially popular in this country.

Reasons for event tourism

Official holidays and days off are defined by Islam. Government offices are closed on Thursdays and Fridays, banks and the private sector work half a day on Thursdays and have shortened working hours, and are off on Fridays. Friday is a Muslim holiday.

Markets are open on Thursday and Friday. There are two official holidays per year. The first is Eid Al-Fitr, which lasts from the 25th of Ramadan to the 5th of the following month of Shawwal. This holiday lasts from 10 days to two weeks depending on the weekend. The second official holiday is Al-Adha, which lasts 10 days, from the 5th to the 15th of the twelfth month of Jul-Hijjah. This is the period of pilgrimage when pilgrims come from all over the world to perform the Hajj to the Holy Mecca and visit the Prophet's Mosque in Al-Madinah. According to custom for the private sector, these two holidays last only 3-5 days.

13 chosen

This state received its name in honor of the ruling dynasty - Saudis. The chronology here is completely different than throughout the world, and today in this country the year is 1432. In this country, water is more expensive than gasoline, and people go straight to the desert for a picnic. There is not a single monument to a living creature here, but there are monuments to tongs, a trowel and something else that looks like a camel. Women in this country are prohibited from almost everything, even driving a car and appearing on the street without a man accompanying them. There is no international tourism at all, and if you want to see the country from Arabian fairy tales with your own eyes, you need to get an invitation from one of the local companies. Therefore, welcome to a culinary journey through the mysterious and magical country of Saudi Arabia.

Country: Saudi Arabia

Official name: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia on the world map: largest state on the Arabian Peninsula. It borders Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait to the north, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is washed by the Persian Gulf in the northeast and the Red Sea in the west.

Some photos

What do they feed here?

A lot has already been said about Arab cuisine, let’s add an Arabian touch. The thousand-year-old culinary traditions here have remained unchanged to this day. What the fabulous sheikhs ate a thousand years ago can also be seen on the table today. In the first place, of course, are meat dishes - lamb, beef and poultry. The cooking methods are determined by the hot climate, so the meat is cooked either on a spit or by frying in its own fat rather than in oil. By the way, the real one shawarma, the pride of Arabic cuisine, you can try it here. But what we are used to seeing here has nothing in common with this delicious dish. Shawarma Here they cook from lamb: thin slices of lamb roasted on a spit are placed on pita bread ( pitta), pour over tahini sauce, add spices, cover with a second flatbread and... leave for 12 hours. National meat dishes also include:

• Meshui-meshakal or mezze– cold cuts
• Yakhni– stewed meat with vegetables
• Macbus– meat with rice and spices
• Kultra– meat cooked on a spit
• Cuba– wheat and lamb meatballs fried in oil
• Maklube- pilaf
• Kebe– vegetables stuffed with lamb

The most famous poultry dishes:

• biryani dajaj- rice with pieces of chicken stew
• samman- quail dish
• charis– chicken casserole
• dajaj–stewed turkey with rice and vegetables
• al-mandi – steamed chicken with honey
• kibda-fireh – poultry liver pate

It is customary to serve rice, herbs, and a variety of salads with herbs and spices as a side dish: couscous, fattoush, falafel, khomus, ful, tabboulah, baba ganouj, mutabel

The meal is often completed with thick soup or broth.

Every time on the table you will see a variety of pies with a variety of fillings (kubbe, khudar, lyakhma, sambusa, sebenekh), dates or figs. The bread here is also special - it's aish or hobz and, of course, pita (or pitta) flatbreads. Due to the heat, baked milk is preferred among dairy products dahn, cheeses, yoghurts, cottage cheese.

It is impossible to imagine a meal without fruit! In first place are dates, watermelons and melons. Dates are almost the main food product; hundreds of dishes are prepared from them, and most importantly, excellent jam is the pride of the country!

Desserts and drinks

Locals consider their desserts to be the best in the world. Baklava, sherbet, Turkish delight- we are known not only from oriental fairy tales, but here it is something special! Arabic halva is sung by poets as a symbol of the East, and this is a completely different product than what we are used to seeing on our shelves... And also milk pudding with nuts and raisins, desserts with mysterious names asyda, esh-asaya, mechalabia, the well-known umm-ali, ish-saraya, mechalabia, ligemat...

The most important drink in Arabia is coffee! This is a lifestyle, this is the soul of the country, and the core of the conversation. The coffee is prepared right in front of the guests, including the process of roasting the beans and grinding, to show how much the owner respects his guests and how skilled he is in preparing this drink. The coffee is brewed very strong and without sugar, but a great variety of desserts are served with it and washed down with cold water. The first cup is for the most respected person; refusing coffee is an insult. In Arabia, tea is drunk cold to quench daytime thirst.

National dishes

So let's get to Arabian lunch! Let's start with the meat dish. Kabsa is a dish of rice, spices, vegetables and meat. There are countless recipes for this dish, and each one is unique! It can be made from lamb, chicken, fish, shrimp and even camel meat. We'll take chicken - for the first acquaintance!

Kabsa

Need to:

• 1 chicken (cut into 8 pieces)
• 4 cups rice (soaked in water)
• bay leaves
• 1 maggi cube
• 1 onion (finely chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• PC. cardamom
• pcs. cloves
• 2 pieces of cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tbsp. tomato
• 2 pcs. carrots cut into pieces

Mix onion, garlic and all the spices, coat the chicken pieces with the mixture, then pour in the tomato and leave to marinate. Remove the chicken from the marinade and bake in the oven in a deep dish. Place rice in the marinade, add water and cook over low heat until cooked. Place rice on a plate and place chicken pieces on top. Bon appetit!

What would we do without Arabian sweets? It is very difficult to choose - everything is so tempting. let's try something like donuts - lugaimat!

Lugaimat (Al-Lugaimat)

Need to:

• 2 cups of flour
• 2 tablespoons milk powder
• 1 can of cream
• 2-3 tbsp. Sahara
• a pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp. black cumin
• 2.5 tsp yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water
• sugar syrup (5 tbsp sugar per 2 tbsp water, 1 tbsp lemon juice) or liquid melted honey

Knead all the ingredients into a dough (mix all dry ingredients evenly beforehand) and leave for 1.5 hours in a warm place. Form balls of dough by passing it between your thumb and forefinger, bent into a ring. Place each ball with a spoon (dipped in oil) into vegetable oil boiling over low heat. Fry until golden brown. Remove excess oil, pour syrup or honey.

Here it should be taken into account that all countries of the Arab world use, in fact, the same culinary traditions and products, but often the same dishes have different names, which is explained by the peculiarities of the Arabic language or its dialects, and the widest variability of local cuisine - Often the mixing of completely traditional ingredients leads to the formation of completely new original dishes.

Even between the cuisine of the nomadic peoples of the peninsula and the settled inhabitants there are quite noticeable differences, expressed, however, only in the proportions of ingredients and various seasonings.

National food

Since Muslims do not eat pork, meat dishes mainly use lamb, beef, poultry, fish and eggs. The meat is usually fried over coals or in a hot frying pan without fat, which gives it a special taste.

TO traditional meat dishes It is customary to include skewered meat "kultra" (usually poultry or lamb), kebab "tikka", traditional Arabic "shawarma" or "shwarma", the famous kebab of marinated lamb or beef - "kebab" (there are almost fifty variations of this dish) , starting with lamb “shish kebab” and ending with minced meat skewers - “kofta” or “kofta”), assorted meats “mezze” (can contain up to forty different types of meat and other ingredients),

"maklube" (pilaf), fried or baked lamb meat "meshui" (traditionally cooked in a clay oven as a whole carcass with various spices) and its variants like cold cuts "meshui-mushakkal", meat with spices and rice "makbus", or " machbus", fried meatballs made from minced lamb and wheat "kuba", or "kebbe" (there are also dozens of options),

vegetables stuffed with young lamb and peppers (peppers, eggplants, zucchini, etc.) or vice versa - a whole young lamb carcass stuffed with various vegetables and spices, stewed meat with vegetables "yakhni", lamb meat with rice and nuts - "guzi" and much more other, no less original, dishes.

Thick meat soups with beans, rice, peas, noodles, potatoes, capers, etc. are very popular, as well as broths, which often complete the meal.

They are widespread poultry dishes- “dajaj” chicken stewed in tomato sauce, “al-mandi” steamed chicken with honey, “haris” chicken casserole (sometimes with veal), rice with pieces of “biryani-dajaj” chicken stew, chicken kebab "tika-dajaj", spicy chicken "djaj-tannuri",

poultry liver pate “kibda-firekh” or “kibda-farouj”, quail meat “samman”, revered in the East, duck or turkey prepared in dozens of ways with rice and vegetables, as well as dozens of other original dishes.

As a side dish for all meat dishes, rice, herbs and all kinds of salads from fresh vegetables with the obligatory spices and seasonings are used. Here you can try such traditional dishes as “fatoush” salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, herbs, lemon, olive oil and the obligatory “sumak” spice made from dogwood or barberry fruits, plus pieces of bread or croutons), the obligatory “couscous” made from semolina in flour and no less traditional "homus" ("hummus") from crushed yellow peas with sesame sauce ("tahini" or "tahin") and olive oil,

balls of chickpeas or legumes fried in vegetable oil with spices - “falafel”, thick puree of brown beans, garlic and lemon “ful” (often used as a filler for flatbreads), wheat or corn porridge “burgul”, “tabboulah” ( "tabbouleh") - a dish of wheat and finely chopped greens, white soaked peas "dakhnu", salad of green beans, tomatoes, onions and garlic - "lubia", caviar of eggplant, tomatoes and onions with sesame sauce "mutabbal" (" mutabel")

and a slightly more “liquid” version of it - “baba-ganouj”, a whole class of “makhshi” dishes (baked vegetables stuffed with chopped meat, rice, onions, herbs and spices), rice in all sorts of combinations, as well as pickled and salted vegetables and seasonings

All kinds of spices, onions, garlic, olives, peppers, nuts, honey, cinnamon and herbs are widely used, often mixed into thick pastes or sauces. They occupy an important place on the table dates and figs, which are used in all possible forms - from dried or dried, usually served as a light snack, to complex pastes made from flour and ground fruits, which is the main type of local preservation. An indispensable ingredient in many dishes is vegetable oil, primarily olive, sesame and palm.

The meal is often accompanied by wheat flour pies with meat "kubbe" or small triangular pies "sambusa" (with vegetables - "khudar", cheese - "jabna", meat - "lyakhma" or spinach - "sabenekh"). There is always “hobz” or “aysh” bread on the table, as well as the indispensable unleavened flatbread “pita” or “pitta”.

Bread recipes a great variety, various types of flour, herbs and spices are often added to it, and also used as the basis for unique local sandwiches - pieces of meat, fish, vegetables, herbs or vegetable pastes are simply wrapped in a flatbread. Bread is used instead of cutlery, picking up sauce or meat from a plate.

Consumed in large quantities dishes made from fermented milk products(both cow's and camel's, sheep's or goat's milk are used), ghee from sheep's milk "dahn", cottage cheese, cheese and all kinds of yogurt, which is often used both as an independent dish and as a sauce. Fish and seafood, which are cooked almost exclusively over coals, are also widespread.

Very good local desserts- candied fruits and nuts, “Turkish delight”, “mehalabiya”, or “mehallabiya” (pistachio pudding), “meghli” (rice pudding), “umm-ali” (milk pudding with raisins and nuts), “baklava” ", "halua" (quite different from the halva we are used to), "sherbet",

“esh-asaya” or “ish-saraya” (sweet cheese pie with cream), kozinaki “kyshshat”, “baklava”, “ligemat” (donuts with honey), “sherbet”, a peculiar Arabic dessert “asyda” (fried flour with sugar, spices and butter) or its dietary variety - “beaver”, etc.