Name: Dried Apricot Stew (Margat Mishmish/Turshana/Hamudh-Hilu)
Yield: Makes 4 servings
Cuisine: Iraqi
Ingredients: ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom; ¼ cup (1 oz/30 g) slivered/flaked almonds, or walnuts coarsely broken; 1 lb (450 g) lamb, trimmed and cut into 1 in/2.5 cm cubes; beef can be substituted; ¼ cup (60 ml) lemon juice; ½ teaspoon turmeric; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons oil; ¼ teaspoon ginger; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; ½ cup (4 oz/115 g) split chickpeas, washed and soaked for 30 minutes, optional; 1 cup (6 oz/175 g) dried apricots; ¼ teaspoon chili pepper; ¼ teaspoon coriander; 1 medium onion, thinly sliced; ½ cup (2 oz/60 g) sugar

Preparation info

Makes
4
servings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Delights from the Garden of Eden

By Nawal Nasrallah

Published 2019

About

A delicious and exotic relic of pre-tomato times. In addition to the names given above (apricot stew, and sweet-sour stew), it is also known as marga beidha (white stew). It can be traced back to Babylonian and Assyrian days, as seen in their apricot and bean stew (Thompson, Assyrian Herbal). It is also reminiscent of al-Warraq’s and al-Baghdadi’s sweet-sour stews mishmishiyya, which called for a sour variety of ripe apricot mishmish baligh asfar hamidh (al-Warra