Egyptian Sayyadiah - Fish With Rice

Submitted by Annacia

"I have not as yet tried this. I'm posting it for Zaar World Tour III. I'm not counting the time for cleaning the fish as most of us buy them pre-cleaned."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 8mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 4 (12 ounce) whole fish, each about 12 oz
• 1 lemon, juice of
• salt, to taste
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 cups long grain rice
• 3 1⁄2 cups hot water
• flour
• oil (for frying, preferably olive oil)
• lemon wedge (to garnish)
• parsley sprig (to garnish)

directions

1. Scale and gut the fish and leave the heads on. ( well, you don't have to if you don't want to).
2. Rinse and wipe dry.
3. Rub surfaces and cavities with lemon juice, salt and pepper.
4. Cover and leave aside for 30-45 minutes. Prepare the garlic and mix with the cumin.
5. Gently fry the onions in oil in a deep pan for 15-20 minutes until very soft and golden.
6. Wash rice, drain and add to onions.
7. Stir over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, then add the hot water.
8. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover pan and cook gently for 20 minutes.
9. Make 3-4 deep slits on each side of the fish and fill slits with garlic-cumin mixture.
10. Coat fish with flour and shallow fry in hot oil until golden brown and cooked.
11. Remove fish and keep it hot.
12. Add about 2 tablespoons of the oil in which the fish was cooked to the cooked rice. Stir through with a fork, cover pan and leave rice for 5 minutes.
13. Pile rice on a platter, arrange fish on top and garnish with lemon wedges and parsley sprigs.

Reviews

[MsPia]

Five stars all the way. This dish is delicious, both the rice and the fish. The balance of the flavours is perfect. I used a fillet instead of the whole fish.

 

[Jill A.]

This recipie is word for word from the Charmain Solomon "Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook" - my copy is from 1980.

 

[Aero A.]

instructions unclear, pressure cooker exploded

 

[duonyte]

This is good and doable on a weeknight. I modified the recipe by sauteing the onion in a skillet, then transferring to a rice cooker and cooking the rice in the rice cooker. I know that the larger rice cookers will cook the onion in the bowl, but I have a little 3-cup model that does not have enough juice to get the job done. This worked very well. I made half the rice and only one fish fillet - a 12 ouncer, and this was enough for a big dinner and enough for a good lunch tomorrow. The cumin and citrus and garlic worked very well together. Lovely with a green salad.