Posting all those international recipes doesn’t mean that I am not a BIG BIG fan of our traditional Egyptian food.

You name it; stuffed vine leaves, stuffed eggplants, beef stew, molokheya … I just love all those dishes that not only taste amazing but also bring back so many childhood memories that I always long to.

I grew up eating a very unique kind of Roz M3ammar; actually you can never call it M3ammar because it was this oven baked very dry rice with a very crusty top & bottom.

I am not saying that I hated it; it’s just that when I grew up & tasted the real Roz M3ammar in a friend’s gathering; I realized that our version has nothing to do with the original recipe.

Roz M3ammar is supposed to be very moist – actually melting in your mouth – with a beautiful golden top that is not “crisp rice” like we used to eat it.

As much as I fell in love with the original recipe, I can ever ever eat it in a restaurant because it’s always too heavy or too greasy or maybe because I believe that certain kinds of food have to be homemade & only homemade!

Over the past years, I have tried many many recipes for this amazing authentic dish but I never got the formula that I was expecting; creamy rice yet not too heavy or greasy.

I just hate food that makes me numb after eating it!

Also, most of the recipes I came across required adding a kind of protein to the dish or cooking it with chicken or beef stock; which is something I am totally against! Why? Why would I add any ingredients to overshadow the delicious taste of the rice that is being pampered with all those creamy ingredients?

I never gave up! I served Roz M3ammar for lunch more than 25-30 times over the past year just to reach the taste I was looking for!

My husband made me swear that I am not cooking it again for 3 months in a row hahaha – actually with all the recipe testing that I am making he does that a lot.

But believe it or not, I came up with a recipe that doesn’t require any preparation.

Yeah, I am serious!

You simply toss all the ingredients together in an tagine & pop it in the oven; let it rest for 15 minutes then bite into the most creamy & silky Roz M3ammar with all the memories that this dish brings.

I promise you won’t feel heavy or numb or sleepy after eating it!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rice washed, soaked in water for 30 minutes & drained
• 4 cups full cream milk at room temperature (1 litre bottle/carton)
• 250 ml cooking cream
• 2 tbsp butter at room temperature
• 2 tbsp eshta
• 2 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 200 C for 20-30 minutes. If you are using a tajin, put it in the oven to heat up.
2.  Get your tajin out of the oven (if using tajin), place all the ingredients in the tajine & mix together.
3. Place the tajin (uncovered) in the middle rack of the preheated oven for about 35-45 minutes until the top is nicely browned, the rice is puffed up & the liquid is almost all absorbed.
4. Take the tajin out of the oven & let it rest for a couple of minutes.
5. Serve immediately with beef stew or roasted chicken.

Notes:

• You have to make sure the oven is really hot; preheat it for about 20-30 minutes depending on your oven. If the oven is not hot enough, the rice will take longer to bake.
• To make sure the rice is cooked, take some little rice from the side of the tajin, if it is cooked/ soft then the whole dish is cooked.
• The ingredients should fill up to 3/4 only of the tajin otherwise it will overflow.
• Place the tajin over a baking tray in the oven to catch any drippings.