TASTES | How to Cook a Camel
March 2010 | Written by Travis Reiser; photo by Daniel J. Gerstle | Humanitarianbazaar.org
If Iraqi, Chadian, or Australian friends brought a camel to dinner, would you slaughter and roast it? How would you prepare such a beast? What garnish? Or if you’d prefer to invite him to the dinner table, what would you serve instead to the camel-vores and the camel?
Riding in a cab through an Arab market recently, I caught sight of a butcher displaying a camel’s freshly-severed head and neck on a rib hook. He had stuffed a handful of parsley and cilantro between its fat lips. The camel, with its long eyelashes, eves facing the street, greens in its mouth looked alive, without a body.
For many camel-vores across the Middle East and Sahel, camel is so relished for the taste of its steaks and ribs, as well as its rich and healing milk, each camel feast is a celebration, the sight of a partial camel in the deli a tease. A family may milk the she camel for several seasons, mate her with a male, then slaughter the male for a wedding, the return of a family member, a circumcision or just for fine dining.
For this group, one might try this straight forward but somewhat absurdly-scaled Bedouin recipe for “Whole Stuffed Camel.” That’s right: You’re going to have to find a Landcruiser-sized caldron, if you want to get the effect of a whole camel on your dining table!
Whole Stuffed Camel! Try it with Sweet Cardamom Black Tea!
Our original text but the recipe is best described here from: “Whole Stuffed Camel”, posted by Mirj, on RecipeZaar.com, 2003. Serves 100 (change servings and units for your needs)
Ingredients
“1 whole camel, medium size
1 whole lamb, large size
20 whole chickens, medium size
60 eggs
12 kg rice
2 kg pine nuts
2 kg almonds
1 kg pistachio nut
110 gallons water
5 lbs black pepper
Salt”
Directions
“Skin, trim and clean camel (once you get over the hump), lamb and chicken.
Boil until tender.
Cook until fluffy.
Fry nuts until brown and mix with rice.
Hard boil eggs and peel.
Stuff cooked chickens with hard boiled eggs and rice.
Stuff the cooked lamb with stuffed chickens.
Add more rice.
Stuff the camel with the stuffed lamb and add rest of rice.
Broil over large charcoal pit until brown.
Spread any remaining rice on large tray and place camel on top of rice.
Decorate with boiled eggs and nuts.
Serves a friendly crown of 80-100.”
Chef #842717, a reader of the above recipe online on the same source in 2008, gave some added detail:
“Steamed the camel 4hrs in 72°C and the lamb 3hrs. The chickens need more time and higher temperature. Afer this the camel only needed 10hrs on the grill. For serving we took the camel of the spear and put the lamb back on.
“That way the lamb was for second servings and had by that time also gotten a crispy surface. We also had a small grill for giving some extra heat to eventual red meat we found, and thats a good advice for others trying this recipe. In adittion we stuck cloves from 30 garlics into the lamb and camel. A real good dinner.”
For those who would prefer to try camel in a manner more fitting a Karavansarai or steakhouse, a meal with more flavor, but a lot less fur to deal with, here’s a fancy alternative. Lamb may substitute. Good luck finding the right cut outside of outback Australia. Better ask an expert butcher.
Camel Fillets with a Shiraz Butter Glaze, try with Wine
(Source: Jennifer Susanto-Lee, blogger.com, 2008)
“Chop up one onion and two carrots finely. Heat olive oil in a pan and fry the onions and carrots until brown.
Trim the fat from two camel fillets and add to the pan.
Add 250ml of Shiraz red wine and 250ml beef stock to the pan and simmer for 30 minutes.
Strain. Add 2 tablespoons butter and whisk until the sauce has a buttery glaze.
Add oil to another pan and heat until very hot.
Cut the fillets into medallions.
Sear fillets very quickly, around thirty seconds on each side.
Take off the heat and leave to relax for a couple of minutes.
Serve with couscous, dates, and a green salad.”
Vegetarians may have to imagine the taste of camel, of course. Unfortunately, tofu will not simulate the taste or texture of camel, at least none of the varieties we’ve tried. But a creative chef may give tofu fillets with Shiraz butter glaze a try. Here’s a vegetarian alternative to serve your camel-vore and camel guests.
Vegetarian Pulao, try with Cardamom Green Tea
(Source: Viji, www.khanakhazana.com/recipes )
“Serves four people [Of course, resize, if necessary]
1 cup Basmati rice
1 cup Vegetables (carrot, potato-skin peeled, beans, cauliflower, cut into 1” long pieces
2 onions (sliced)
2 ripe tomatoes
¼ cup dessicated coconut
2 tbsp. ginger garlic paste
Paste of one raw onion, 3 green chillies, and one bunch of coriander leaves for seasoning
2 cloves
2 cardamoms
A small bit of tei patha
Ghee for frying
Salt to taste
Wash all the vegetables, peel the skin of potato, cut all the vegetables into 1 inch long pieces. Chop the onions into thin long pieces and keep aside.
Wash the rice well and drain completely moisture free.
Grind the tomatoes and coconut together to form a thick juice by adding not more than ½ cup of water.
Make a paste of coriander leaves by adding very little water, keep aside
Make a paste of one raw onion and 3 green chillies and keep aside
Heat a pressure pan and when it gets heated up, add 1 tbsp. of ghee and season the clovesm cardamom and tei patha
When they splutter, 2 tbsp of ghee add cut onions and fry until tender. Add ginger garlic paste and onion-chili paste and fry until the ghee separates. If the paste sticks to the bottom of the pan add 1 more tbsp of ghee and fry. Add the coriander paste and fry til good smell comes.
Now add the vegetables and fry for a minute. Add the drained rice and fry till moisture is absorbed. Take the tomato-coconut juice and pour 2 cups of the same to the rice mixture. Add enough salt and mix well.
Close the lid and wait until 3 whistle sounds come. Keep gas in low heat for 5 minutes and remove from fire.
Serve hot with onion raitha.”
Fill your plates and goblets. Treat yourself. If time allows, take a deeper look into the role of the camel in nomadic communities. It is at once a source of human and luggage and shelter transport, a shelter of shade under a blazing sun when there are no trees, a source of milk, and only then a celebratory meal.