Mulukhiyya with meatballs and Vegetarian Mulukhiyya

Mulukhiyya: Meatballs with Jute Leaves

from Medieval Cuisine of the IslamicWorld pg 95
Made for the February 2013 Cooks Guild Meeting, subject Things that are preserved for winter.

You need some meat, fat, and jute leaves. If necessary, use chicken or pigeons. You need some garlic,
onion and pepper. Boil the meat and strain it. In a mortar crush garlic, pepper, coriander [seeds], and
caraway and add them to the meat along with the onion [which you will already have roasted]; then
crush [the spice mixture] again with the meat to make meatballs. The meatballs are then put in a pot
with the broth. When the broth...reaches a boil, the chopped jute leaves are added, and one cooks [it]
until done.

My Redaction:
Take 1 large onion or equivalent of other sizes (mine was 8.3 oz after chopping off the ends, peeling
and cutting in half.) Roast at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes or until soft.
Take garlic (0.7 oz after peeling) and cut it in a rough chop, put both the onion and garlic in a food
processor.
½ heaped tsp black peppercorns
1 ¼ tsp whole coriander seed
1 ½ tsp whole caraway seed

Put the spices in a spice grinder or mortar and grind till you get a smooth powder. Put the ground spices
in the food processor with the onion and garlic and grind to a fine chop. Mix by hand with ¾ tsp kosher
salt and 1/23 lb 20% fat ground beef or other ground meat. Roll into meatballs and fry in olive oil. Put
the meatballs into a large, wide bottomed pot and cover with broth. (I used 4 cups of broth. Although
the recipe says to boil the meat before straining and grinding it that is just to get a broth. I made it
easier for myself by using ground meat and a broth I had already made. You can skip the step of frying
the meatballs before putting them in the broth but I find they hold together better when fried first.)

Bring the broth with the meatballs in it to a boil and add the Jute Leaves (also known as Jew's Mallow.
Below is a picture of a Jew's Mallow plant (2nd picture) and of the Common Mallow (1st picture) that
grows all over my back yard. I used my Common Mallow and dried it.

I had seen on a Youtube video that the stems are not edible but during the spring we would put them in salads and eat them so I picked out the thinner stems and put them in too. I now know that once it
becomes a dried stick cooking doesn't change that. If I use the dried form again I will just crumble off
the leaves because that is the only part that can be eaten on the dried. Dried mallow leaves take about
20 minutes to cook at a simmer to get tender.) Add any needed water to give a thick soup consistency
and cook till done. Once the leaves are tender serve the soup. Here is a picture of the soup I made.

Vegetarian Mulukhiyya

from Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World pg 95

You need some mallow [jute leaves], sesame oil, mastic, cinnamon, onion, and dry coriander [seeds].
Fry the onion in the sesame oil and then cook [it] with all the other ingredients.

I also had a package of mallow in the freezer that I had chopped, washed and blanched. After draining it weighed 1 lb 1.5 oz. It also contained stems but since they had not been dried they were tender. The color was a brighter green and it had a fresher flavor. If I have my choice I will use frozen over dried from now on. I used olive oil instead of sesame oil because it costs less and I felt the extra flavor would not hurt the dish. Here is my redaction:

5.4 oz peeled onion, chopped
1 lb 1.5 oz frozen mallow, defrosted
1-2 TBSP chopped garlic (not called for in this recipe but it is common in modern mulukhiya recipes
and it allowed me to use less onion which one of our members is sensitive to.)
2-4 TBSP olive oil (for frying)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp xanthum gum (as a thickener to substitute for the mastic)
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
enough water

Fry the onion and garlic in oil until softened and fragrant then mix in the ground spices and xanthum
gum. Add the defrosted mallow and enough water to make a thick soup. Simmer, covered for 5 to 10
minutes then serve.

Because Muluhkiya is hard to find in the Boise area (I have only found one place locally who sells it,

Kabul Market which sells the dried form) I believe it would be possible to make a similar soup by

substituting frozen spinach for the Mulukhiya leaves, although you would loose the characteristic slime

this soup is known for. Mallow even gets slimy when you chop it fresh.