Mabooch Kuwaiti
I am on an endless quest to find things actually made in Kuwait. I have actually found a few things – The Sadu House on Arab Gulf Drive, up near the Souk Sharq has a fine selection of hand woven trimmed gift items, from time to time I can find something originally Kuwaiti in the antique souks or at the Friday market, I have found locally grown vegetables in the Sultan Center and yesterday I found Mabooch Kuwaiti in the local co-op.
It looks a lot like the hot peppery sauce used in some Chinese cuisines, so I thought I would give it a try. As I looked a little closer at the jar, I saw this:
Do YOU see it?
It is less hot and more vinegary than the Chinese peppery sauce. Can you tell me how it is used?
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This is a condiment, you add it to what you are eating and you can get different varities, sometimes green depending on the chilli used. Level of spice also different, best ones are home made, so find some people who make it at home and try it.
Yup, like Purgatory said, we use it as a condiment with mainly rice dishes instead of cooking with it. You’ll notice different kinds of ma’abooch and other pickled condiments on small plates set around the dining area on Kuwaiti ‘tables’.
Yum! The ingredients are: red pepper, garlic, salt and some kind of color (can’t read the last word). I bet its good :)!
its not false advertising though, it is mentioned in Arabic on top that its made in Bahrain, but its the Kuwaiti type, because in the gulf while the same stuff can be used with similar names, the contents and way its made is different.
It tastes GOOD! 🙂 Thank you for all the information. I just laughed to see that it was made in Bahrain. I will look for one of those women on the side of the road near the mosques and see if they have any fresh-home-made made.
No, just go inside a Kuwaiti home and say I want some!
They make hijabs and abayas in Kuwait :o) They have the tag “Made in Kuwait” and all…
I really can’t think of anything else :o)
Food is the thing that is produced the most in Kuwait. Such as Darabeel, Rahash, KDD e.t.c.
I would make my own at home rather than buy that IntlXpatr. For one it has added food colouring in it.
All you need to do is buy ground red chillis and pound them with some garlic and salt into a paste. Some recipes call for adding vinegar or lemon but if the garlic is juicy enough and you pound hard, you will get a nice texture to the ma’booch and it is wonderful added to rice or even over a white cheese sandwich
BTW Al-Jazeera factories is just a well known Bahraini brand name that produces bottles local foodstuffs and concoctions.
yeah i agree with jewaira, we never buy the bottled ones. yukh 😛
its easy to prepare, just take red chili peppers, the little round dried ones (bright red). pound them with garlic, salt and add a little bit of lemon (like drops only). the lemon is to preserve their natural color for days. and the garlic to give them the nice texture. enjoy! 😀
Purg – Yes, your mother would think I have no manners if I walked into your house and said “I want some!”
Q8Sultana – and I am amazed at how very beautiful the scarf and abaya creations are! And how something intended to cloak can in fact enhance! God bless women everywhere, we are all the same!
??? – I am totally addicted to Kuwait spinach, the few months I can find the Jasmine Farms brand.
Jewaira – when you say “pound”, what do you use? Morter and pestle? Wooden or brass or porcelain? Or . . . can you use a food processor?
Yousef – I want your Mom to come show me (just kidding!) 🙂
I have a question that perhaps some of you, my aunt’s blogging friends, can answer:
What does “maabouch” mean? I read the Arabic word yesterday (ma3bouj) and have looked it up in the dictionary, but I cannot find anything! It looks like an Arabic word, and now I know what it is, but I still don’t know what the word means!
shukran salaf 🙂
We do not make our own, nor does my mother cook, so tough luck there, but you are welcome to come and knock on my door with 24 hours notice should you be lost 😛
My grandmother makes the best kuwaiti food ever. Aaah I am craving for it right now. My mother got Maabooch from this lady here in Kuwait, I don’t know if she sells it or what, but its so HOT and good!
LLLLOOOOLLLLLLL, Purg! I carry a MAP! And what happend to YOUR cooking? You used to publish some great creations?
Chirp, the stuff I bought wasn’t hot hot hot – like my hair wasn’t standing up and I wasn’t sweating. It was a little vinegar-y, but maybe that was lemon juice. I’ll have to try a bunch until I find my favorite. Actually, I had something a lot like this (but also different) made at home by your cousins in Qatar.
Will someone please tell my niece and me what “MAABOUCH” means?
well it comes from the Arabic root verb عبك (A’a, B, K) which is to break into small pieces. So I guess Maabouch is something that’s broken into small pieces. (That’s the best I could find :/)
Aha! That sounds likely to me! Is that also the word they use for powdered sugar? Sukr maabouch?
I don’t think so. I think that would be Sukar na’aim as in fine (or soft).
Ahhh. Thank you, GE&B for your very specific help 🙂
Looks yummie 🙂
It’s spicy and a little vinegar-y, and good!
[…] waiter brings Kuwaiti nibbles, simply cut lettuce and vegetables, Kuwaiti pickles and a green mabooch, which I happily recognize because you, my readers, have told […]
Plz i need green mabooch Suppalier in qatar…..urgent….do u have any contact number