Overview
Bahrain sits on the water, and Bahraini cooking reflects that, more seafood than any other Gulf cuisine, more reliance on local fish techniques than imported meat traditions. Machboos is the Gulf rice dish (the same word as Emirati machboos and Kuwaiti majboos), but the Bahraini twist is mahyawa, a fermented anchovy sauce that is the Bahraini equivalent of fish sauce in Vietnamese cooking. The hammour (grouper) is marinated in mahyawa, then pan-fried, then layered onto saffron rice cooked in fish broth. The result tastes like the sea concentrated: deep, briny, faintly sweet, with the rice carrying the fermented depth all the way through. Crispy onions on top complete it.
The Ingredients
- • 600g hammour fillets (or sea bass)
- • 400g basmati rice
- • 3 large Brown Onions (Crysp)
- • 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- • 200g Cherry Tomatoes on the Vine (Crysp)
- • 1 Green Hot Chilli (Crysp)
- • 20g Coriander (Crysp)
- • 1 tbsp Peashoots (Crysp), to garnish
- • 2 Crysp Limes, juiced
- • 3 tbsp mahyawa sauce (or 2 tbsp anchovy paste + 1 tbsp lime)
- • 2 dried limes (loomi), pierced
- • 1 cinnamon stick
- • 4 cardamom pods
- • 1 tbsp baharat
- • 1 tsp turmeric
- • Pinch of saffron threads
- • 4 tbsp ghee + extra for fish
- • 200ml vegetable oil, for crispy onions
- • Salt & black pepper
Instructions
Marinate the Fish
Pat the fish fillets dry. In a bowl, combine the mahyawa sauce, lime juice, half the baharat, turmeric, salt and pepper. Coat the fish thoroughly, refrigerate 20 minutes minimum, up to 2 hours. The fermented sauce will lightly cure the surface of the fish, giving it the deep umami foundation that makes mahyawa machboos different from other Gulf fish dishes.
Fry the Onions Crispy
Slice 2 of the onions paper-thin, separate the rings. Heat the vegetable oil in a deep pan to 160°C. Fry the onions in 2 batches, stirring frequently, 7 minutes per batch until deep golden brown and crispy. Lift onto paper towel, season with salt. They will keep crisping as they cool.
Bloom the Saffron
Crush the saffron threads, steep in 3 tbsp warm water 10 minutes.
Build the Rice Base
Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a heavy pot. Dice the third onion, cook 5 minutes until golden. Add garlic, cinnamon, cardamom, the chopped chilli. Cook 1 minute. Halve the cherry tomatoes, add to the pot, press to release juice. Cook 4 minutes until the tomatoes break down. Stir in remaining baharat, season with salt.
Add Rice, Loomi, Saffron
Rinse the rice 3 times. Add to the pot along with the saffron water and pierced dried limes. Pour in 800ml hot water. Bring to a boil, drop to low, cover, cook 18 minutes. Off the heat, leave covered 10 minutes more, then fluff.
Pan-Fry the Fish
While the rice cooks, heat 2 tbsp ghee in a wide non-stick pan over medium-high. Lift the fish out of the marinade, shake off excess. Fry the fillets skin-side down (if skin on) or top-side first, 3 to 4 minutes per side, depending on thickness, until the surface is deep golden and the flesh flakes when tested with a fork. Lift onto a plate, do not overcook, fish dries out fast.
Layer the Final Dish
Mound the saffron rice on a wide round serving platter, the rice should glow golden from the saffron and turmeric. Arrange the pan-fried fish fillets across the top, glossy and golden-brown. Pile a generous handful of the crispy fried onions across, the onions should mound dramatically. Roughly chop the coriander, scatter generously across. Pile peashoots in the centre. Serve immediately with a small bowl of mahyawa sauce on the side for diners to add more, and lime wedges for squeezing across the fish.
The Tradition
Mahyawa is the Bahraini ingredient that no other Gulf state shares with the same intensity. Made by fermenting small fish (often anchovies) with mustard seed, fennel, cumin and turmeric for weeks until it transforms into a thick, dark, deeply savoury paste, mahyawa is the Bahraini equivalent of fish sauce in Southeast Asia. It is sold in small jars at Bahraini and Iranian grocers and shows up on bread for breakfast, drizzled on rice, used as a marinade for fish, even mixed into dips. The fermented anchovy tradition came to Bahrain via Persian and Indian Ocean trade routes centuries ago, similar tradition exists in coastal southern Iran (mahyaveh). Mahyawa machboos is the centrepiece dish that uses the sauce most boldly, a defining example of Bahraini coastal cooking. In Manama restaurants like Saffron and Haji Gahwa, this is the dish that signals you are eating proper Bahraini food, not imported Gulf cuisine.
💡 Pro Tip: Real mahyawa is sold in small jars at Iranian and Bahraini grocers in Dubai (try the Sharjah Iranian markets or specialty stalls in Deira). The bottle says "Mahyaveh" or "Mahyawa" and looks like dark brown thick sauce. If you cannot find it, the closest substitute is anchovy paste from a tube mixed with a squeeze of lime and a pinch of fennel seed, blend smooth. The substitute gets you 70% of the flavour, the real thing has fermentation depth that nothing else replicates. Worth searching out.
