Super Freaky Freekeh فريكة باللحمة

Freekeh is one of my most favorite Arabic foods (do i say that about everything Ive posted so far) No but seriously it is, in this post i made freekeh with lahme but of course alot of people typically make it with chicken. I have had some bad experience with freekeh, once my MIL brought me some freekeh from Syria so i put it in a jar to keep it and i left it in the cabinet, about 3 months later i found bugs crawling all over the inside i was lie traumatized for life. It is very important when buying your freekeh to look at the bag, if you see webs or if they are little granules at the bottom of the bag then don't get it, buy freekeh where you can see every granule and there is no dust appearance in the bag. Some freekeh comes in boxes, i always open the boxes and look at the box. the brand i used today was Nour, its really good except there are alot of rocks to pick out. Here is how i make freekeh ma3 lahme

First i go through the freekeh and look for stones or weird looking things and pick them out. Sometimes there are little branches or the freeked is still in the grain so look, This is annoying but i think it is worth it and you get fast at it eventually.

I spy.................. imperfections and rocks in my freekeh!

In a pan ( i use a pressure cooker) put some oil in the pan and cook the meat so that it has little brown spots. Add water and wait until the meat boils and remove the foam at the top of the water.

This is what the foam looks like, make sure to removes all of it.

After you remove all of the foam add in the spices and onion and close the lid and pressure cook it for about 45 minutes

Add some oil to a pan and slightly fry the very well washed freekeh (i rinse usually 4 times and soak for about 5 minutes) Make sure all the pieces of freekeh get a little oil on them.

Add the broth that was made when you boiled the lamb cubes, add enough so that the freekeh is cover by about an inch or if you like to measure 1 cup of freekeh to 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water. Add in some Arabic spice (not too much because it will make the freekeh dark) and some cardamon

When the freekeh is almost done cooking and the water is almost evaporated make a well in the freekeh and put the frozen peas in a strainer to steam. You probably think I'm crazy and you are wondering why i just don't stick them on top of the freekeh, well that's because the peas will lose their bright green color and become kind of dark green and plus i like to sprinkle the peas on top and i don't like t mix them because they tend to break and it doesn't look as pretty.

Serve in a plate by layering the freekeh the peas then meat then nuts (here i fried up some cashew, pistachios, pine nuts and almonds)

The written recipe:

1 cup of lamb cubes (add 1 onion, salt, whole cloves, 2 bay leaves and whole cardamon and cinnamon stick to the water)

2 cups of cleaned freekeh

4 cups of broth

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of Arabic spice

1/2 teaspoon of cardamon

1 cup of frozen peas

3 tablespoons of samneh or butter or oil

pine nuts

cashews

pistachios

almonds