Welcome to The Storied Recipe! I host a unique podcast where every guest gives me a recipe that’s significant to their culture, life, and memories. I make, photograph, and share the recipe with you. I invite you to listen to Rachel's Story as you make her Isku Dhex Karis.
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This Isku Dhex Karis recipe, a Somalian rice dish, comes to us from Rachel Pieh Jones, an author and mother of 3 third-culture kids. Rachel has lived in Djibouti for almost 20 years. As Rachel shares in her podcast episode, this was the first dish she ever learned to make in Somalia, where she lived less than a year before fleeing to Djibouti.
Here's what Rachel had to say about Isku Dhex Karis:
"This is a popular Somali dish that basically means "cook it all together" and is one of the first things I learned to make in Somaliland and which my family ate often in Djibouti as well. I'm sharing it because I think it highlights several things - the abundance of carbs (rice AND potatoes), the local love for bananas and adding them to things (the best bananas in the world are from Mogadishu and I can barely eat the cardboardy dry ones in the US anymore!), hot sauce, lamb, and the ability to take a dish and grow it and grow it if you are serving many people."
When I assembled ingredients for this recipe, I decided it was probably the most unusual combination any guest ever gave me! However, trying new recipes from guests each week has taught me to put aside my skepticism when approaching a new dish. I can genuinely say we loved this Somali rice dish! My niece had come over to help me photograph the recipe. The smell of the spiced meat, vegetables, and rice cooking all together were so enticing to her, she scooped out a bowl for herself and pronounced it delicious!
I wasn't quite willing to use the level of hot sauce that, as Rachel says, "makes grown men cry". (In fact, I wasn't willing to even come close.) I also couldn't quite eat the banana in the same bites as my rice and lamb. However! I did leave them on top and intersperse them with bites and found it quite a refreshing complementary flavor! I think I may try banana on the side of rice dishes more often.
Two more notes about this recipe:
- There are hundreds of types of rice in the world and I'm fairly confident that those of us in the U.S. won't be using the kind either Djiboutians or Somalis use. After talking it over with Rachel, I believe basmati is the closest approximate.
- Many Somalis also put raisins in their Isku Dhex Karis. Feel free to add some!
Enjoy!
Episodes Related to this Isku Dhex Karis
Visit the episode post
Ep. 073: Djiboutian Food at the Crossroads of Culture and Religion {with Rachel Pieh Jones}
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How to Contact Rachel Pieh Jones
Website: www.rachelpiehjones.com
Instagram: @rachelpiehjones
Do Good Better on Substack: rachelpiehjones.substack.com/
Pillars: How My Muslim Friends Led Me Closer To Jesus on Amazon
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More African Recipes
More Middle Eastern Recipes
More Episodes About Food & Religion
For more on the practices of feasting and fasting, particularly during Ramadan, tune into Episode 048: A Wanderer Through Life And A Lover Of Spice With Nadia Bandukda
Muslim-American Nadia Bandukda eloquently explains why she observes Ramadan.
If you’re interested in food and religion in general, you will also enjoy Ep 053: Food And Theology With Father Leo, The Priest Who Beat Bobby Flay or Ep. 064 – A Passover Episode With Challah Champ Marissa Wojcik
Isku Dhex Karis {Somali Rice Dish}
8
servings40
minutes30
minutes1
hour10
minutesThis Somali rice dish with lamb, potatoes, and carrots is flavored with whole spices and topped with lime and bananas.
Keep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
3-4 lbs 3-4 lamb cubes (or beef)
vegetable oil
3-6 cloves 3-6 of garlic minced
2 tablespoon 2 cumin
1 large 1 onion diced
half of a bunch of cilantro chopped coarsely
2 2 hot peppers- remove stems and cut in two pieces each salt and pepper (use lots of pepper)
3 large 3 carrots, diced
2 large 2 white potatoes, diced
White rice (I believe Basmati is the closest approximate)
Directions
- In a hot dry skillet heat cumin until it begins to smoke, not burn, set aside in a dish. Using vegetable oil or trimmed lamb fat, brown lamb in skillet spicing with cumin, salt and pepper. (Don’t try to brown too much lamb at once or it will not brown properly.)
- Place lamb in Dutch oven. Sauté onions and garlic in a little oil and add to lamb. Simmer a few minutes. Add carrots, peppers, potatoes and cilantro. Add uncooked non-instant white rice.
- Prepare rice according to package directions (using their directions for salt). Use any broth from the lamb as part of the liquid. A pinch each black pepper, cinnamon, cloves. (You can use whole spices, if you warn people to pick them out as they eat.)
- Cook until rice is done. Be careful to turn down the burner to simmer while you cook the rice and meat together.
- Accompaniment: mixed green salad , bananas , fresh limes.
- After serving pilaf on plates pile salad on rice-meat mixture.
- Slice bananas on top.
- Squeeze lime over everything.
- A quick fresh hot sauce can be made by blending coarsely chopped hot peppers and a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice. Don’t breathe the fumes when you take the blender lid off. This hot sauce can make grown men cry
Notes
- Make sure to listen to Rachael on The Storied Recipe Podcast, Djiboutian Food at the Crossroads of Culture and Religion {with Rachel Pieh Jones} while you make her Shorshe Mach recipe!
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