Well, the wait is finally over! After more than 3 months with no Formula 1, we're now less than a week away from starting off a whole new season! I'm unbelievably excited for it but first, I'd like to start off by just saying a quick thank you to all of you that have taken the time to check out this blog, "The F1 Kitchen". This has been something I've been wanting to make for a while now and I'm just happy to finally be able to share this with other people, just like yourself. If you want to know more about what this blog's about, I cover it a bit more in the "About" section on the website but basically, this blog is just a way for me to share with you my recipes from the countries that F1 visits, give you a little bit of info about what's currently going on within the world of F1 and even drop in some history/info on the countries and dishes that Formula 1 visits. If this sounds like something that could be interesting to you, then I hope you enjoy this post and go on to check out all of the upcoming posts in the future as well.
With all that said, let's carry on now and dig into why I'm so excited for the new season to not only be starting, but for us also to be visiting Bahrain again. Not only is this a pretty perfect week for me to properly show you the intended purpose of this blog, by showing you a dish that a lot of you may never have even heard of before, it's also surely got to be one of the most anticipated seasons we've had in years, mainly due to the radical regulation changes being introduced this season. Therefore, what better way to kick off this blog too by introducing one of Bahrain's most popular dishes, "Kabsa!" This flavoursome dish of chicken and spiced rice might sound quite simple but trust me, the tastes and flavours it produces make it one of my favourite dishes that I've discovered through doing this...but more about that later.
I'd first like to talk a bit about the upcoming race weekend in Bahrain. It's been a while since we've seen such a huge shake up to the regulations in Formula 1 and that's what makes this weekend just so exciting. Now that we've watched two lots of pre-season testing...actually, apologies...one lot of pre-season testing and a "shakedown" session...it seems as though the usual suspects of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari have impressed the most so far but with it being hard to properly gauge just exactly how well each team's going to do based off of testing, it remains a possibility that almost any team could turn up this weekend and still surprise us. Mercedes look like they're a step off of Red Bull and Ferrari at the moment but we've all seen this before right? It wouldn't really be pre-season testing at this stage if we didn't see Mercedes claiming they're off the pace, only to then turn up for the first race weekend with one of the quickest cars on the grid...again.
It really does look like we could be in for something special this season though. Ferrari were easily the most consistent team through testing but we did also see some good pace from Red Bull too. Really any predictions at this stage could be very wide of the mark come Sunday, but with it looking like we could see a 3 way title fight this season, 2022 has the potential to be keeping us on the edge of our seats all year.
Although the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull will be hoping that they feature on the podium again this weekend, just like they did last year, perhaps we will see a bit of a shock instead. Maybe it'll be Haas who show up this Friday in the first practice session with a rocket in the back and finish on the top two steps of the podium come Sunday?...Or maybe they won't! (I'm not holding my breath.)
As eager as I am for Formula 1 to be returning again this weekend though, I'm almost just as excited at finally being able to share this blog and all of the fantastic dishes I've discovered with you all. With Bahrain being the first race this season, this was also where I decided to start looking a few months ago for potential Bahraini dishes to cook and thankfully, I was instantly rewarded by coming across the delicious dish called Kabsa. Now I'd like to quickly point out that Kabsa isn't just a popular dish in Bahrain, it's also popular in a number of other Middle Eastern countries too! It was as soon as I learnt about it's huge popularity that I knew this dish of meat (normally using chicken but can also be made with lamb or fish) and spiced rice must be worth looking into and thankfully, it didn't let me down.
Having never made Kabsa before, I was hesitant at first as to how it would turn out. There were ingredients I hadn't heard of before, combinations of spices I'd never seen and not a huge amount of information on it out there. If I'm being honest, I wasn't too confident with how it would all turn out but once I had finished cooking it and tried my first mouthful, I was blown away! It was so simple and easy to cook yet the flavours it produced were just amazing. The amount of different herbs and spices it includes seemed a bit daunting to me at first but they all combined together beautifully to create something new and unique to me. It was just fantastic and better yet, it also assured me that pursuing this blog was definitely going to be worth it if it introduced me to new foods like this.
Although I loved Kabsa the moment I tasted it, I still wanted to try and experiment with the dish and find out if there was a way to make it taste even better. It's taken a good few months of tweaking and fine tuning to get it just right but it's finally done. Therefore, I'm very happy to share with you my recipe for the beautiful Bahraini dish, Kabsa...enjoy!
Kabsa
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15-30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours
Ingredients
Splash of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
700g Chicken Breast or Thighs
2 Medium Sized Carrots, chopped or diced
3 Garlic Cloves, minced or chopped
1/2 White Onion, diced
1 Big / 2 Medium Tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 Red Bell Pepper, roughly chopped
280g Basmati Rice, unwashed
1 Chicken Stock Cube
500ml Water
3Tbsp/43g Ghee (or unsalted butter)
2Tbsp/30g Tomato Puree
200g Tinned Chopped Tomatoes
1/4tsp Saffron Threads
2-3 Bay Leaves (depending on size)
1 Lime (for grating/zesting the skin)
Salt
Black Pepper
30g Raisins/Sultanas (Optional)
20g Slivered/Finely Chopped Almonds (Optional)
Kabsa Spice Mix
2Tbsp Fresh Grated Ginger / 1/2tsp Ground Ginger
2tsp Baharat
1/8tsp Ground Cloves
3 Cardamom Pods
1/4tsp Ground Allspice
1/4tsp White Pepper
1 Cinnamon Stick
Pinch of Cumin
Pinch of Nutmeg
Instructions
Dilute the chicken stock cube in 500ml of water and add in the saffron threads and bay leaves, leaving to cool until later.
Dice the chicken and then fry off in olive oil on a medium-high heat until it's all cooked through and starting to go golden brown on the outside. Due to the large amount of chicken in this recipe, I'd recommend cooking this off in a regular frying pan and then leaving to one side until after the next step.
Next, melt the ghee (or butter) in a dutch oven/large saucepan on a medium heat and then add in the onions. Cook for a couple of minutes before then adding in your garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes until the onions go translucent and soft.
Add the cooked chicken into the same pan as the onions, along with your spice mix, red bell pepper, salt, black pepper and lime zest.
Give everything a quick stir and then add in the tomato puree, carrots and fresh tomatoes before stirring again.
After cooking for a further minute, add in the tinned tomatoes and the chicken stock you prepared earlier. Stir everything together and then bring to a boil before reducing the heat and covering the pan. Simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Next, add in the rice and gently stir before covering again for a further 30-45 minutes, carefully stirring occasionally. (If you're adding in any raisins or sultanas to your Kabsa, then add them in at this point.)
After the 30-45 minutes have passed, check your rice is cooked (add in more water if necessary) and add any more salt and pepper you feel is needed before serving.
Garnish with almonds and enjoy.
Tips
This dish uses a lot of different spices and if you don't/can't get all of them for whatever reason then please don't be deterred from trying to make this dish. Obviously if you are able to, then I would recommend using all of the spices listed above but if not, so long as you can get hold of the Baharat, Cardamom pods, Ginger, Cinnamon and Cloves, you should still be able to experience what this dish has to offer.
Most of these spices should be available in any large supermarket but there may be one or two that aren't, such as Baharat. Baharat is a mixture of other spices anyway so you may be able to make this up yourself if you're struggling to find it, however for those of you in the UK, Baharat is available in Sainsbury's and Tesco at the least.
Other variations of this recipe will sometimes include other ingredients that I've not included here, such as coriander, aubergine, courgette or other types of dried fruit like apricots, so if you're feeling adventurous, why not try adding some of these in too?
Well, that's it for this first post. I hope you enjoyed it and if any of you ended up making the dish for this race weekend, then please get in touch on socials and let me know how you got on with it. I'd love to hear your feedback on the dish or if you enjoyed making some new cuisine to go along with the current Formula 1 race.
If you're interested in checking out this blog again, new posts will be uploaded each Monday before a race weekend so be sure to come back then or follow the blog on Twitter and/or Instagram to stay updated when a new post is out.
Next week we'll be in Saudi Arabia with another fantastic new dish. Be sure to check it out!
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