Verified in 2 cities.
Harees is wheat cooked with meat and beaten into a smooth, salted porridge finished with ghee; in United Arab Emirates we have verified places to eat it in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Harees is wheat cooked with meat and beaten into a smooth, salted porridge finished with ghee. It is the dish of Ramadan and festive tables across Emirati homes.
Harees is boiled cracked wheat mixed with meat, spices and butter, with a consistency between porridge and gruel. The wheat is soaked overnight, then simmered with the meat until the two can be beaten into one mass, and it is garnished with cinnamon, sugar or clarified butter. The dish is recorded in the 10th-century cookbook of Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq and in al-Baghdadi's 13th-century cookbook. In the Gulf states it is commonly eaten in Ramadan, and Emirati homes cook it for the fasting month.
Where to eat in Abu Dhabi:
Where to eat Harees in Abu Dhabi: the editor picks
Harees is cracked wheat and meat beaten together for hours into a savoury porridge, salted, topped with ghee, and eaten in Dubai at Ramadan and at weddings.
Harees is one of the oldest dishes still cooked in the UAE, recorded across the Arabian Peninsula long before the pearl trade and shared with Armenian harissa and Levantine hareesa. Wheat and meat go into the same pot with water and nothing else, then cook for three to five hours until the grain collapses and the two can be beaten with a wooden pestle into a single smooth mass. The labour is the recipe, which is why it belongs to occasions rather than weeknights: Ramadan iftar, Eid, weddings and condolence gatherings. Dubai households still send trays of it to neighbours, and the only seasoning at the table is salt, ghee and sometimes a spoonful of sugar or cinnamon.
Where to eat in Dubai:
Where to eat Harees in Dubai: the editor picks
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