I very much love molokhia. This is one of my favorite dishes of all time. I posted about ewedu before if you remember. I have made molokhia many times and never blogged about it until today.
I was being just lazy I guess. I learned how to make this dish from a Moroccan friend of mine. She told me it is Egyptian. I have talked to both Egyptian friends in real and on the net.
One of them told me traditionally it is made with rabbit. However when I post this recipe I know one of my nephews who is an engineer and an algae obcessed one at that.
I know he is going to tell me, “Benazir Mammi, it looks like algae.” Loool, like I said before in my post about ewedu that this is the same frozen jute leaves I have used. It has a slimey consistancy like okra but tastes so much like spinach and so very yummy.
I used 1 lb or 1 kilo of meat. Rabbit, lamb, goat, beef, chicken, beef, turkey, cornish hen, veal and quail can be used.
I had 1 rabbit that I used. I advice you take a large bowl that is filled up with water and 1/4 cup of white vinegar added. This gets the gamey smell out of meat like rabbit. It tenderizes the meat too.
My Moroccan friend if I remember when she showed me used lamb. So feel free to use your meat of choice for this dish. I had 1 whole rabbit which they are very small and it was well cleaned from the inside. I cut it in to pieces before I cleaned it in the water and white vinegar solution. Rince the meat until the smell of vinegar is gone. The meat should be smelling good by now since the remaining blood that is lingering is no more.
First grab the pressure cooker after cleaning the meat, turn on the heat to high, add 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1 onion or shallot cut in to half moon pieces and fry until they are brown.
Add your meat of choice to the pressure cooker with the onions and fry a little. I ground in my mortar and pestle the spices I use for this dish. I added 2 green cardamoms, 1 small whole red chili, 4 allspice berries, 3 cloves, 1 pinch each of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, 1 broken piece of cinnamon stick if you are not using cinnamon powder. I groumd this in to a coarse powder and added it to the pressure cooker.
I used 1 pinch of cinnamon powder instead. I also added 1 bullion cube, 3 dashes each of lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and maggi or knorr aroma. There is no need to add salt because the bullion is very salty.
I also added 2 bay leaves, 1 pinch of sumac, 4 cloves of garlic chopped and 1 liter or 1 quart of water.
I closed the pressure cooker and waited for the safety button to pop up. Chicken takes at least 15 minutes in a pressure cooker. The rest of the meats take 30 minutes in a pressure cooker.
When time is up, shut the heat off and let the pressure escape. If the meat is a little tough then add 1 more cup of water and again turn on the heat and repeat for 10 minutes. If meat is falling off the bone after 30 minutes then skip this repeat step.
Now we are at the end of the recipe. Take 1 frozen packet of molokhia (jute leaves), cut it open and add it right in to the meat with the stock. Remember this is not suposed to be dry at all it is suposed to be very soupy.
When the frozen molokhia isn’t frozen anymore and it is boiling then it is time to be enjoyed with rice, orzo macaroni and aish which is like pita bread.
Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!! P.S. Oops I forgot and sorry you can also slow cook this on a slow cook setting in multi functional cooker like instant pot or in a crock pot for 4 hours. Be sure to sauté your onions or shallots on sauté setting in instant pot then throw your meat of choice with the molokhia. Then either slow cook or pressure cook in instant pot and the like.
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