Where can I eat mloukhieh?

Knowing my interest in food, a colleague of mine--whose in-laws are from and live in Iran--has been supplying me with spices and different foodstuffs from Tehran's Grand Bazaar. I'm just starting to learn about preparing Persian dishes, and my reading has piqued my interest in other culinary traditions from the Middle East. Today I came across the following video by artist Larissa Sansour. Soup Over Bethlehem (2006) depicts a family on the West Bank partaking in a meal of mloukhieh, the national dish of Palestine, as they discuss the soup they're eating along with other topics.



I've never heard of mloukhieh, but the video made me want to try some. Are there any Chicago restaurants serving it?

Thanks,
Sharon

Fascinating video...and now I, too, must eat mloukhieh. My guess is you have to pretty much make it at home...though I'd rather someone else made it for me, as I am so occupied during the holidays.

Hi,

Next to Larsa on Dempster is an Iranian grocery store (or at least there was). It is the only shop I have gone to with pictures of The Shah and Empress of Iran posted prominently on the wall. They may be the hub of whatever Iranian community there may be. I suggest asking them for ideas where this may be enjoyed, then please let us know.

Regards,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulukhiyah

This was in about 2000, but the Nile in Hyde Park had it. It is not on the current menu but the owners may be able to help if you call in a quiet moment shortly after opening.

The Nile
1611 E. 55th St.
Chicago, IL 60615
773-324-9499

Like the nearby and less excellent "Cedars Mediterranean Kitchen," the Nile's name obfuscates the owners' precise place of origin with a Western-friendly mantle. One tipoff is the rather fine mousakhan with rolled sumac pita, one of the best things on the menu. Another is the photography on the interior walls.

Molokhiya is distinctly regional middle eastern specialty which can be found along the nile up from the sudan into egypt and across the sinai into palestine, definitely not in iran. I dont know any restaurants in chicago that prepare it and doubt any do. However its relatively easy to make, my favorite versions being rabbit or lamb. If i get a chance i will post a recipe when back in the states. Funny, i never thought this obscure dish of my youth, that is admittedly really slimey, would ever make to lth! Kudos.

Habibi wrote:Funny, i never thought this obscure dish of my youth, that is admittedly really slimey, would ever make to lth! Kudos.

Not much help to H_S, but the late great City Noor served Molukhai.

Mloukhieh//Molokhiya/Molukhai




Enjoy,
Gary

Moist and delicious cornish hen served with molokhia is the Sunday special at the under-reported-on Couscous House. I haven't been there in a few months, and am overdue for starting a thread on this very good place.

Couscous House
4624 West Lawrence Avenue
(773) 777-9801

David Hammond wrote:Fascinating video...

I think the way I found the video was somewhat of a you-know-you're-an-LTH'r-when (or, you know you're- completely-bonkers-food-obsessed) moment. I got the latest issue of the New Yorker in the mail yesterday and noticed in the table of contents Burkhard Bilger's article “Hearth Surgery” on the design of clean-burning stoves, particularly for very poor parts of the world. This happens to be a topic that I've been following in recent months, I think, starting in April of this year when I learned that my hometown of Montreal would be banning new wood-burning stoves. The news from the CBC made me interested in clean-burning stoves more generally, and I started starring everything on the topic that came up in my Google Reader. When I saw the New Yorker article, I immediately thought of India's new National Biomass Cook-stoves Initiative, which I read about on World Changing, a web site covering green/environmental news. Trying to find again the piece on the National Biomass Cook-stoves Initiative, I came across a review, also on World Changing, of a new arts DVD-magazine, the current issue of which focuses on the Middle East and includes Sansour's video. The review included a still from the video, showing two people eating something green and slimy, which then inspired me to find information on mloukhieh. Results of my "mloukhieh" Google search included some references to the Chicago Palestine Film Festival, where Sansour's video was shown in 2007. The references made me remember that a former colleague of mine who is no longer in Chicago use to be one of the organizers of that film festival and, I think, more than anyone I know has connections to the Palestinian community here. I sent him an email and am waiting to hear back about how I might find or cook mloukhieh in Chicago...

Cathy2 wrote:Next to Larsa on Dempster is an Iranian grocery store (or at least there was). It is the only shop I have gone to with pictures of The Shah and Empress of Iran posted prominently on the wall. They may be the hub of whatever Iranian community there may be.

Yes, it's still there. My colleague and his wife who've been giving me spices from Iran are recent transplants to Chicago now living in Evanston. They've been to the Dempster store. I think they said they were underwhelmed by the offerings, not surprising given their regular deliveries from Tehran.

Habibi wrote:Molokhiya is distinctly regional middle eastern specialty which can be found along the nile up from the sudan into egypt and across the sinai into palestine, definitely not in iran.

I love this road map to molokhiya.

G Wiv wrote:[Not much help to H_S, but the late great City Noor served Molukhai.

Mloukhieh//Molokhiya/Molukhai

Ah. This information is good to have even if I can't experience City Noor. I wasn't paying close attention to different spellings of the dish when I did my LTH search, so I tried to find references using only Sansour's spelling.

Kennyz wrote:Moist and delicious cornish hen served with molokhia is the Sunday special at the under-reported-on Couscous House.

Wonderful! I may be occupied with other food adventures today, but if I have room for a second dinner, I will try to visit.

FWIW, I've seen packages of frozen molokhiya at Lincolnwood Produce. Good luck!

Also regularly available frozen from Al Khayam... also, at SaharII, both on Kedzie, the one to the south of the intersection with El Aurans and the other to the north...

Antonius

FYI when buyin molokhia - it's labeled "Jews Mallow" if not "molokhia." Also, unless you are in Cairo its only available frozen.

It's really simple to prepare: brown meat, remove, fry onions and garlic in lots of olive oil, throw in frozen molokhia, fry till unfrozen, reintroduce meat, add water, boil till meat is tender, adding tiny drops of lemon juice to draw out molokhia slime, which can be skimmed off to taste. I likes mine slimey as hell - think west african okra soup. Finish with a whole head of chopped garlic fried in olive oil and fresh lemon wedges (not for decoration, actually squeeze the stuff into the soup) and serve with rice.

Gypsy Boy wrote:FWIW, I've seen packages of frozen molokhiya at Lincolnwood Produce.

Antonius wrote:Also regularly available frozen from Al Khayam... also, at SaharII, both on Kedzie, the one to the south of the intersection with El Aurans and the other to the north...

Habibi wrote:FYI when buyin molokhia - it's labeled "Jews Mallow" if not "molokhia." Also, unless you are in Cairo its only available frozen.

Thank you for these suggestions. From what I understand, "mloukhieh" refers to both the leaves and the soup. Are the frozen items mentioned here the former or the latter? Also, I don't know if this is available in the US, but there appears also to be canned mloukhieh leaves.

Habibi wrote:It's really simple to prepare:

It does sound easy enough to make, but I'll probably try out a restaurant or frozen version first since I have no idea what it's supposed to taste like. I'll see what I can collect on Kedzie this week and report back.

H-S -- I can't swear to it but I think I've seen the canned leaves at Al Khyam... And what I've seen there in the frozen foods section along the far south wall are the leaves, not a prepared product of any sort.

A

In her book, The Book of Jewish Food, Claudia Roden describes how much Egyptian Jews (she is one) adore mloukhia. Here is an interesting blog post about cooking and eating mloukhia. I like her description: "Mloukhia’s texture in polite terms would be described as viscous or mucilaginous but someone who is not accustomed to it might have other ideas."

Sharon, the frozen product at Lincolnwood Produce is the leaves, not the soup. Good luck! I await your report eagerly.

I'm pretty sure I've seen frozen "Jews Mallow" at HarvesTime as well

thanks for sharing this video, it was very interesting!

Thank you all for enabling me to geek out over mloukhieh.

I'm hoping this week to make a day of sauna-sushi at Paradise followed by shopping on Kedzie to get frozen mloukhieh that I will keep until I can taste a version of the soup and then make my own. (Of course, I may not like the soup, and then I'll have to figure out another use for the frozen leaves...)

So it turns out that a friend of mine helped curate the Palestine Chicago Film Festival where Sansour's video was shown a few years ago. Here's the mloukhieh information he shared with me today:

Mloukhieh is actually a very Palestinian dish that is hard to find
outside of that area. Many countries in the Middle East (from Lebanon,
Syria, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, and the Emirates) claim to also make
mloukhieh, but its hard to find the leaves outside of that region.

Like they say in the movie, many people substitute mloukhieh for
spinach (and sometimes confuse the two), but they are not the same.

Generally, the dish is not considered a soup per se as it is
technically served over a bed of rice. I have aunts who cook it
differently as they come from different regions (or even towns less
than 2 miles away!!) who have different takes on how its prepared.

I would ask where the leaves come from and if they are in fact
spinach, its probably hard to find in Chicago,but you might find it
frozen at the middle eastern store in Andersonville (which I've
totally forgotten the name of right now!?!) on Clark and Foster.
The best restaurants for Palestinian cuisine are in the south side,
nearing the suburbs. I can get some recommendations if you give me a
couple of days!

I asked if he could share his family's mloukhieh recipes.

Here's the Egyptian version of mlokhieh. They add cilantro, which is
not typical of traditional Palestinian mlokhieh. This receipe also
doesn't call for lamb cubes, which is typically served in Palestine.
This receipe is from my mother's church ladies group, but I'll get my
families for you soon!

1 bunch fresh mlokhieh, or 1 packet frozen
6 garlic cloves, crushed
1 bunch cilantro, chopped very fine
1 tablespoon ground coriander
4 cups water
Olive oil
2 cubes vegeterian bouillon or make fresh made vegetable stock
1 onion, chopped
Juice 1 lemon or 1 1/2 tablespoons of vinegar

1. Grind the fresh mlokhieh leaves in a food processor until it is quite fine.

2. Fry the garlic, the fresh cilantro and the coriander in a pan with
olive oil, until golden brown.

3. Boil the water and bouillon cubes (or fresh vegetable stock), then
add the garlic, salt and spices and then add the chopped mlokhieh.
Bring to a boil, and then take off the stove.

4. Serve with cooked plain white rice and chopped fresh oniom with
lemon juice and/or vinegar.

More recipes and Chicago Palestinian restaurant recommendations, I'm hoping, to come...

I've got a larger collection of recipes than I realized. A quick perusal of the cookbooks that happen to be handy yields the following offerings:
--one (fairly involved) recipe from "Classic Palestinian Cookery" by Christine Dabdoub Nasser,
--a chicken, lamb and veggie combo from Virginia Gerbino's "A Taste of Syria,"
--a recipe with chicken or lamb from Mary Salloum's "A Taste of Lebanon" and another from Madelain Farah's "Lebanese Cuisine," (and Anissa Helou's "Lebanese Cuisine" also shares a long recipe);
--an intriguing recipe for soup in "The Book of Jewish Food,"--an excellent resource written by Claudia Roden, a Sephardic Jew born and raised in Cairo (curiously, Joyce Goldstein's books on Sephardic cooking have no reference to it);
--a soup recipe with variations from Salah Jamal's "Arabian Flavors"--another Palestinian cookbook;
--a recipe with chicken from Sonia Uvezian's "...Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen," and
--nine recipes (including one with fish) from Samia Abdennour's "Egyptian Cooking."


Curious about any or all?

Gypsy Boy wrote:I've got a larger collection of recipes than I realized. A quick perusal of the cookbooks that happen to be handy yields the following offerings...Curious about any or all?

That is an impressive collection. I am interested in them all, though I should say that mloukhieh and Palestinian food are more of a side project for me these days. My current obsession is Persian food--I'm practically on the verge of taking Farsi lessons--and making dishes like fesenjan and kaleh pacheh (if I can get up the nerve to work with a whole lamb's head). Perhaps I'll be able to move on to Palestinian food beyond mloukhieh in the spring.

With all due respect to you and your palestinian friend, happy stomach, egypt is definitely the capital of molokhia in the middle east, in terms of production and consumption. It is ubiquitous in the country's markets and all molokhiya you buy in the us will have been grown in egypt. That doesnt mean palestinians dont enjoy it or prepare it uniquely, but egypt is the big boss of mololhiya. And im saying this as a palestinian..... Anyway, enjoy.

Knowing that it is also called mallow helps -- because when I was traveling through Egypt last year, that was always the word they used when describing it to us. We saw the leaves being spread out and dried in many places, and ate it many other places. First time was at Nubian House Restaurant in Aswan, and it greeted us again as we traveled up the Nile. So we pretty well enjoyed it along the path described by Habibi. And in my notebook for the trip, I used the word "wonderful" a lot in relation to being served this soup.

Since the cookbook I picked up in Luxor has several pages of recipes with what it calls "mulukhiya" (transliteration is always entertaining), I'm glad to know that they're talking about the mallow I had while I was in Egypt. Thank you for making that connection for me, Habibi.

Habibi wrote:With all due respect to you and your palestinian friend, happy stomach, egypt is definitely the capital of molokhia in the middle east, in terms of production and consumption. It is ubiquitous in the country's markets and all molokhiya you buy in the us will have been grown in egypt. That doesnt mean palestinians dont enjoy it or prepare it uniquely, but egypt is the big boss of mololhiya. And im saying this as a palestinian....

Thanks, Habibi. That's a good reminder. The Egyptian origins of mloukhieh are alluded to in Sansour's film, but I got more information about its roots in Egypt when I did my initial googling. I'll be sure to probe my friend's claim the next time I talk to him. Though he lives in NYC, I know he spends a lot of time in the Middle East, so I'm curious as to why he said what he did.

His explanation actually further magnifies what interests me most about Sansour's work and mloukieh, which are the ways foods are appropriated, adopted and evolve. Mloukhieh with Palestine and Egypt is a specific example, but over the years I've also thought more broadly about the appropriation of food as it relates to the US/Canada (my own issues of national identity) and Philippines/Spain (the former, my parents' home country). I had the fortune of meeting Edward Said several times before he died. I wish I knew then about mloukhieh and had used the time I had in his company to discuss food.

BTW:

Antonius wrote:Also regularly available frozen from Al Khayam...

I scored some mloukhieh on an amusing visit to Al Khayam today (amusing mainly for reasons other than mloukieh).



I spotted the "Egyptian spinach" pretty quickly in the freezer. There were two different brands. The one I got cost a few more cents and are whole mloukhieh leaves. The other package was the same size and cheaper, but it was chopped mloukieh. I figured I could go from whole leaves to chopped but not the other way around, depending on what I end up doing with it. I thought it was pretty amusing that the person who rung up my purchases wanted to make sure that I intended to buy the whole leaves. I probably should have taken that as a signal to run to the freezer and get the chopped mloukhieh instead, but, ah well...again, I have no idea what I'm going to do with it right now.

Stay tuned...

Happy stomach, to achieve the dish's ideal soupy texture, finely chopped leaves
are a must. Think sauteed spinach v. palak paneer. I learned this first hand in cairo when i tried to prepare molokhia with fresh leaves and a dull knife.

Anyway, sorry to keep butting in, but as this thread has revealed, molokhia is a topic close to the hearts and belly's of many. Thanks for taking us on your little culinary adventure.

Habibi wrote:Happy stomach, to achieve the dish's ideal soupy texture, finely chopped leaves
are a must. Think sauteed spinach v. palak paneer. I learned this first hand in cairo when i tried to prepare molokhia with fresh leaves and a dull knife.

Anyway, sorry to keep butting in, but as this thread has revealed, molokhia is a topic close to the hearts and belly's of many. Thanks for taking us on your little culinary adventure.

Habibi, I really appreciate your input. Searching for information on mloukieh is challenging because of the different spellings, and much of the information on the web is redundant. I know basically nothing about the Palestinian or Egyptian communities in Chicago (or much about these cultures in general), so I appreciate any personal perspective I can get. You seem to know very much what you're talking about.

Yeah, I thought of the soupy, slimy texture of the mloukhieh in G Wiv's City Noor photos when I was at Al Khayam, but I was also thinking back to the version of mloukhieh in the film, with the whole leaves. Perhaps my food processor can take care of the fine chopping if I get to that point.

LTH,

It's a molokhia weekend. Finding myself frozen and famished after celebrating Boxing Day by playing in the snow for two hours this afternoon, I decided it was the perfect day to try making molokhia. Rarely one to take the path of least resistance, even when starving, I decided to split my bag of frozen molokhia leaves and make two varieties of the stew. I mashed together the recipes of Habibi and my friend's mom's ladies' church group to end up with lamb molokhia and a vegetarian yellow split pea molokhia.

First, I partially thawed the leaves so that I could get it all into my food processor to chop. The sliminess was apparent just taking the leaves out of the plastic bag. Chopped and slimy:



[I'm having some reaching-fixtures-to-replace-lightbulbs-in-my-kitchen issues, so my lighting here is unintentionally moody.]

I then browned a 1/3 lb. of lamb:



For both stew versions, I started with olive oil, garlic, onion and cilantro, basically halving quantities from the church group's recipe for each saucepan:



For the vegetarian molokhia, I added coriander.

Then I added the semi-frozen molokhia, the lamb to one pot, 3/4 cup cooked yellow split peas to the other. I poured almost a 1/2 cup water into the lamb pot and 1 cup of vegetable stock into the split peas. (I wasn't sure what consistency I wanted.) Then I added several generous grinds of salt and pepper to each version and brought to boil. Finally, I turned off the heat and added a splash of lemon juice to each pot.

Lamb molokhia:



Split pea molokhia:



I set out rice, lemon halves and a head of roasted garlic, and voilà! Two bowls of molokhia for one hungry stomach:



What does molokhia taste like? Green and slimy (like 10x more slimy than okra) in a good way. I enjoyed both versions I made, but I preferred the molokhia with lamb. I can't tell what difference the cilantro made, but next time I'd definitely use corainder, meat or no meat. I'd keep the ratio of lamb to leaves the same. For the vegetarian version, I'd halve the amount of split peas. I liked the stew best with the sliminess front and center. The extra lemon and roasted garlic are musts. A mighty fine winter dish.

Tomorrow, I will eat molokhia at Couscous House and report back.

Kennyz wrote:Moist and delicious cornish hen served with molokhia is the Sunday special at the under-reported-on Couscous House. I haven't been there in a few months, and am overdue for starting a thread on this very good place.

Couscous House
4624 West Lawrence Avenue
(773) 777-9801

On my quest for restaurant molokhia tonight, I discovered that Couscous House is no more. The place was dim and looked like it was being renovated. According to some fellows down the street, it closed a few weeks ago, and the restaurant has a new owner who is re-configuring things. It sounds like the restaurant will reopen, but I don't know how it'll be different from its previous incarnation. And no information on molokhia.

Santander wrote:This was in about 2000, but the Nile in Hyde Park had it. It is not on the current menu but the owners may be able to help if you call in a quiet moment shortly after opening.

It may be time to call the Nile.

happy_stomach wrote:On my quest for restaurant molokhia tonight, I discovered that Couscous House is no more.

Inquiring of the daily specials at Salam waitress says "type of spinach with chicken" Thinking this may be code for molokhia I delve a little deeper. Sensing my interest she offered a sample, moments later I'm spooning up a small bowl of grassy green vicious veg, molokhia. Surprisingly neutral flavor, slight vegetal edge, salty, I'm wondering if the draw for molokhai is its semi slimy swamp essence.

Molokhia aside "chicken" in the spinach and chicken was the best damn chicken I've had in quite a while. Plump bone-in half chicken, crisp skin, bursting with juice, flavor throughout the bird, almond studded rice soaking up run-off.

Mloukhieh aka Jews Mallow w/rice, pita, torshi and half roast chicken,Salam Thursday daily special, $9.66.

cell phone pic


Salam disclaimer: Thursday lunch chicken was exceptional, waitress friendly, interactive and knowledgeable. YMMV (your mileage may vary)

Salam Restaurant
4636 N Kedzie Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
773-583-0776

Mloukhieh, Molokhiya, Molukhai

happy_stomach wrote:

Now that I have a visual, Marketplace on Oakton regularly carries this in their frozen food section along with fava beans, tiny okras and artichoke hearts of the same brand. I'm right next to certain I've seen it at Fresh Farms, too.

I'm pretty sure I have seen this frozen at Andy's Fruit Ranch on Kedzie, too.