Hamam Mahshi (Egyptian Stuffed Pigeon)
Abuja, Nigeria · View all recipes
Overview
Hamam mahshi is pigeon stuffed with spiced rice or freekeh, poached and then browned in ghee. It is an Egyptian speciality and one of the dishes most closely identified with the country. **It contains mixed nuts, which the title gives no indication of.** Pigeon is farmed rather than hunted in Egypt, and has been for a very long time. Villages along the Nile keep them in distinctive mud-brick towers, structures that have been part of the Egyptian landscape since pharaonic times, and the birds are raised specifically for the table. That agricultural fact is why a dish built on pigeon is ordinary in Egypt and almost unknown elsewhere. The stuffing is what varies. Rice is common; so is freekeh, the roasted green wheat, which gives a smokier, chewier result and is the more traditional choice in many households. The source mentions grits, which is likely a rendering of freekeh or of coarse cracked wheat. The source attributes mahshi as a category to the Ottoman period, which is a reasonable and widely repeated account, though the specific claim that hamam mahshi is originally Turkish is contested and has been recorded as a claim rather than a fact. The method's step order is muddled, it fills the birds before the stuffing has been made. Reordered below.
AFN Heritage Note
Hamam mahshi is an Egyptian dish of pigeon stuffed with spiced rice or freekeh. Pigeons have been farmed along the Nile since antiquity, kept in mud-brick towers, and the dish is closely associated with Egyptian cooking. Stuffed dishes of the mahshi family are generally attributed to the Ottoman period.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Wash the pigeons thoroughly, rubbing them with salt and flour to clean them properly, then rinse well with water.
- 2
Cook the rice in water for about 10 minutes over medium-high heat, so it is part-cooked. It will finish inside the bird.
- 3
Mix the part-cooked rice with the chopped onion, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spices, mixed nuts, salt and pepper to make the stuffing.
- 4
Fill the pigeons with the stuffing, taking care not to overfill, the rice expands as it finishes cooking and a tightly packed bird will burst.
- 5
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil with the bay leaves, cardamom, salt, pepper and cinnamon, and lower the pigeons into it. Cook for around half an hour, until completely done.
- 6
Do not overcook them, or the skin will come away from the bird.
- 7
Lift the pigeons out of the broth and brown them in the ghee on both sides, seasoning with salt and pepper as they colour.
- 8
Serve hot.
Africook’s Notes
- This dish contains nuts. Nothing in its name indicates it, so say so when serving.
- Do not overfill the birds. Part-cooked rice keeps swelling and a tightly stuffed pigeon splits open.
- Part-cook the rice first. Raw rice will not cook through inside a bird in the time the meat needs.
- Watch the poaching. Overcooked pigeon loses its skin, which then cannot be browned.
- Freekeh in place of the rice is the more traditional stuffing in many households and gives a smokier, chewier result.
- Keep the poaching broth, it is well seasoned and makes a good base for soup.
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