Yemeni Fahsa with Goat

Introduction

You’ve spent the morning wandering through the old streets of Sana’a, passing tall brown tower houses decorated with intricate white patterns and colorful stained-glass windows. Around Bab al-Yemen, the streets grow busier with spice merchants, bread sellers, tiny shops, and restaurants tucked into buildings that seem almost as old as the city itself.

By lunchtime, you follow the smell of simmering meat, toasted spices, and fresh bread into a small restaurant.

The cook waves you toward the kitchen, where a large pot of bone-in meat has been gently simmering for hours with onion, garlic, and Yemeni spices. He lifts out a piece and presses it with a wooden spoon. It immediately falls apart.

Then he points to a pale green bowl sitting nearby.

This is hulba—ground fenugreek that has been soaked in cold water to remove some of its bitterness, drained, and then whipped until surprisingly light and foamy. Cilantro, garlic, green chile, and lemon give the fenugreek a fresh, sharp flavor.

But the most dramatic part happens just before the meal reaches the table.

A heavy stone bowl called a madara is heated until extremely hot. Chopped onion is briefly cooked in the bottom, followed by shredded meat and several ladles of its rich broth.

The mixture erupts into a furious bubbling simmer.

A spoonful of the pale, whipped hulba is spread over the top, where it begins melting into the steaming meat beneath it.

This is fahsa, one of Yemen’s characteristic meat dishes and particularly associated with Sana’a. Lamb is the most common traditional meat, although beef is also used. For our journey through the world’s goat dishes, we’re preparing the same style of fahsa with bone-in goat, whose long cooking produces an especially rich broth.

The stone bowl arrives at your table still bubbling.

Beside it is a huge piece of warm Yemeni flatbread. There is no fork waiting for you.

You tear off a piece of bread, pinch up some of the shredded goat, broth, and tangy fenugreek foam, and discover that fahsa is really two dishes at once: deeply savory slow-cooked meat underneath and cool, slightly bitter, citrusy hulba on top.

Before long, the stone bowl has stopped bubbling.

The bread is gone too.

Fahsa with Goat

Yemeni Bubbling Goat Stew with Hulba

Serves 5–6

Ingredients

For the Goat

• 3 pounds bone-in goat meat, preferably shoulder, neck, shank, or a combination

• 1 large onion, quartered

• 5 cloves garlic, lightly crushed

• 1 large tomato, quartered

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 teaspoon ground coriander

• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom

• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 small cinnamon stick

• 6 cups water, plus more if needed

For Finishing the Fahsa

• 2 tablespoons ghee or neutral cooking oil

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• 2–3 cups reserved goat broth

• salt to taste

For the Hulba

• 3 tablespoons ground fenugreek

• cold water for soaking

• ½ cup fresh cilantro

• 1 clove garlic

• 1 fresh green chile, or less to taste

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• ½ teaspoon salt

• ½–¾ cup ice-cold water, as needed

Optional Sahawiq

For an even brighter, hotter accompaniment, serve the fahsa with a simple Yemeni tomato-and-chile relish.

• 2 ripe tomatoes

• 1–2 green chiles

• 1 small clove garlic

• ¼ cup cilantro

• ½ teaspoon ground cumin

• juice of ½ lemon

• salt to taste

Start the Hulba

Place the ground fenugreek in a bowl.

Cover it generously with cold water and let it soak for at least 1–2 hours.

You can also soak it overnight in the refrigerator.

The fenugreek will absorb water and settle into a thick paste while some of its bitterness moves into the soaking liquid.

Carefully pour off and discard the dark soaking water.

Set the thick fenugreek paste aside while you cook the goat.

Cook the Goat

Place the goat in a large heavy pot.

Add the quartered onion, garlic, tomato, salt, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, black pepper, cloves, and cinnamon.

Pour in about 6 cups water, or enough to generously cover the meat.

Bring to a boil.

Skim away any foam that rises to the surface.

Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer gently for about 2½–3½ hours, or until the goat is extremely tender.

You want the meat softer than you might for an ordinary stew because it will eventually be shredded into the fahsa.

Young goat may become tender sooner. Mature goat may require additional time.

Separate the Meat and Broth

Remove the tender goat from the pot.

When it is cool enough to handle, pull the meat from the bones.

Discard the bones and any large pieces of tough connective tissue.

Using two forks or a wooden spoon, break the goat into coarse shreds.

Do not shred it as finely as pulled pork. Fahsa should still have some texture.

Strain the broth.

Reserve at least 3 cups.

Make the Hulba

Place the drained fenugreek paste in a blender or mixing bowl.

Add the cilantro, garlic, green chile, lemon juice, and salt.

Add about ¼ cup ice-cold water.

Blend until smooth.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl.

Using an electric hand mixer or sturdy whisk, beat the fenugreek vigorously while gradually adding additional ice-cold water.

Continue beating for several minutes.

Something rather surprising will happen: the dense fenugreek paste will become pale, light, and foamy, increasing dramatically in volume.

The finished hulba should be fluffy enough to sit on top of the fahsa rather than immediately disappearing into it.

Taste and adjust the lemon or salt.

Keep it cool until serving.

Make the Optional Sahawiq

Place the tomatoes, green chile, garlic, cilantro, cumin, lemon juice, and salt in a blender or food processor.

Pulse until finely chopped but not completely smooth.

Serve in a small bowl alongside the fahsa.

You can also mix a spoonful of sahawiq into the finished hulba if you want a spicier fenugreek topping.

Prepare the Fahsa Base

Heat the ghee in a large heavy skillet, Dutch oven, or individual cast-iron serving pan over medium-high heat.

Add the finely chopped onion.

Cook for about 5–7 minutes, until softened and beginning to brown.

Add the tomato paste.

Cook for another 1–2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the Goat

Add the shredded goat to the onion mixture.

Stir well.

Pour in about 2 cups of the reserved goat broth.

Bring everything to a vigorous simmer.

Using a wooden spoon, press some of the goat against the sides of the pot, breaking it down slightly and allowing the meat to absorb the broth.

Simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add additional broth if necessary.

The finished fahsa should be extremely moist and brothy but not thin like soup. There should be enough concentrated broth surrounding the shredded meat that it bubbles vigorously when served.

Taste and adjust the salt.

Traditional Stone-Pot Presentation

Traditionally, fahsa is brought to the table in an extremely hot stone vessel called a madara.

If you own a cooking-grade stone pot specifically designed for direct heat, heat it according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Add a little ghee and chopped onion.

Let the onion sizzle briefly.

Add the shredded goat and enough hot broth to surround it.

Allow the fahsa to bubble vigorously.

Immediately spoon a generous layer of hulba over the top.

Bring it directly to the table while it is still bubbling.

Modern Kitchen Method

You do not need a Yemeni stone pot to make good fahsa.

A small cast-iron skillet is an excellent substitute.

Heat the skillet until very hot.

Add a teaspoon of ghee.

Spoon in the hot goat and broth.

Let it boil vigorously for a minute or two.

Remove from the heat and immediately spoon hulba over the surface.

The heavy cast iron will retain enough heat that the fahsa should still be bubbling when it reaches the table.

A small Dutch oven can also be used.

Pressure Cooker Option

Place the goat, onion, garlic, tomato, spices, salt, and about 5 cups water in a pressure cooker.

Cook at high pressure for about 45–55 minutes, followed by a natural pressure release.

The goat should be extremely tender and easy to shred.

Strain the broth and continue with the recipe as directed.

Slow Cooker Option

Place the goat, onion, garlic, tomato, spices, salt, and about 4 cups water in the slow cooker.

Cook on low for approximately 8–10 hours, or until the goat is exceptionally tender.

Remove and shred the meat.

Strain the broth.

Prepare the onion and tomato base separately on the stovetop, then add the shredded goat and broth and finish the fahsa as directed.

To Serve

Serve Yemeni Fahsa immediately with plenty of warm bread.

Good choices include:

• malooga or mulawah

• Yemeni flatbread

• lahoh

• large pieces of warm pita if Yemeni bread is unavailable

Set extra hulba and sahawiq on the table.

Traditionally, the bread is torn into pieces and used to scoop the shredded meat directly from the hot stone bowl.

The finished fahsa should have extremely tender goat in a concentrated, savory broth underneath a cool, airy layer of tangy fenugreek foam.

That contrast—the violently bubbling meat, fresh bread, sharp chile relish, and almost cloud-like hulba—is what makes fahsa unlike nearly every other goat stew on the map.