Roz Mermah
Egyptian rice, which is short-grain and cooked with broken vermicelli browned in butter first. The default starch under everything else in this volume.
Photograph credit: Arabic rice (image of Arabic rice on Wikidata Q98271223) by El Mono Español · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
The vermicelli has to be browned properly in the butter — to the colour of strong tea, not pale gold — because that toasting is the entire flavour contribution and undercooked noodles just add texture. It takes about four minutes of constant attention and goes from perfect to burnt in roughly twenty seconds, so it cannot be left. Egyptian rice is short-grain and is rinsed rather than soaked; the small amount of surface starch that survives is what gives the dish its slight stickiness.
How to Make Roz Mermah
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Melt the butter in a heavy pan over medium heat.
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Add the broken vermicelli and stir constantly for 4 minutes, until every piece is the colour of strong tea. Do not walk away from it.
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Add the drained rice and turn it in the butter for 2 minutes until the grains look glossy.
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Pour in the hot water or stock and add the salt. Stir once, and once only.
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Bring to a full boil, then cover and cook on the lowest possible heat 15 minutes without lifting the lid.
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Take off the heat and leave covered for a further 10 minutes.
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Fork it through gently, lifting rather than stirring, and serve.
Related guides: Choosing rice · Ingredient substitutions.
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A Few Pointers
- Brown the vermicelli to a real colour. Pale means no flavour.
- Stir once after the liquid goes in, then never again.
- Ten minutes covered off the heat is part of the cooking, not a rest.
Ingredient Swaps
- Vegetable stock in place of the chicken stock makes this meat-free without changing the method, if that is what you need.
Serve It With
Bamia masreya · Torly · Kofta masreya
Storage
Refrigerated for 3 days. Reheat covered with a splash of water. It freezes for 2 months.
Nutrition per Serving
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: where a line offers a choice of foods, only one of them is counted. How the figures are worked out.
Vegetarian when made with hot water rather than chicken stock.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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