Timeless Bonds: Aprilized Lubia Polo

My husband taught me how to make lubia polo. He had likely never helped his mother or sisters prepare lubia while growing up. However, he did enjoy eating and when he was away at university, he came up with his own Mohammadized bachelor version of it. He used ground meat in his lubia rather than cubes of meat.

I have made this a number of years and I have changed it a bit over that time. I believe that my husband only used tomato paste in his version and I have since added diced tomatoes. I prefer the ground meat over cubes of meat so I use 90% lean ground sirloin when making it. I also add a bit of hot sauce.

So this is an Aprilized version of a Mohammadized version of lubia polo. It may not resemble the authentic version at all but my family loves it. Over the years other family members, friends, and friends of my children have also really liked it. So, authentic or not, I consider this version a keeper.

Aprilized Lubia Polo

First, I pour four cups of Royal basmati rice into my Teflon-coated rice pot. I rinse the rice until the water is clear. This requires several rinsings.

I add a lot of salt… about 1/3 cup. That seems like too much, but after the rice is drained and rinsed, it won’t be. My husband says that the salt will cushion the rice as it boils so that it doesn’t break. I am not sure about that but I still add a lot of salt. Many folks soak their rice but I never know what I am going to cook far enough in advance to soak it.

I then set the rice aside until I have the green beans desqueaked and the ground sirloin ready to brown. I guess that I do soak it but only for a few minutes.

I drain three cans of cut green beans and place them into a skillet with a splash of olive oil in it. I cook the green beans/lubia over medium to medium-low heat, stirring a couple of times before I take them off of the heat and set them aside. I do this step because if I don’t, the green beans kind of “squeak” when eaten and I don’t like squeaky green beans. This step is kind of like oiling a squeaky door.

I use a food processor to grate three small peeled onions. I had small onions so I used three. If your onions are larger, grate two with a processor or using a grater.

I put approximately two pounds of ground sirloin into a bowl, or directly into the pot I will cook it in. To this, I add the grated onion, two teaspoons of pepper, and two teaspoons of salt.

I use my hand to mix everything together well.

I brown the meat mixture on medium-high to medium heat. When the ground beef has browned and the water from the onions has cooked off, I add a small can of tomato paste and stir it into the beef mixture. I cook this until the tomato paste color changes from bright red to more of a brown-red. Then I add two cans of petite diced tomatoes and a couple of healthy splashes of hot sauce. I cook this until most of the liquid has cooked off. Next, I fold in the squeakless green beans and turn off the heat

As soon as I start browning the beef, I put the rice on to cook on high. When it begins to boil, I turn it down a bit just to keep it boiling. I stir it occasionally and check the rice to see if it is ready to dam/steam. My brother-in-law has told me that it is ready to dam when you can take one of the partially cooked grains of rice and squeeze it between two fingers. When it breaks into three pieces, it is ready to dam. I am not sure of the significance of it breaking into three pieces, but it seems to work.

After the rice breaks into three pieces, I pour the rice into a sieve and rinse it. If it seems too salty, I rinse it a bit longer. I rinse my rice pot out and put a bit of olive oil into the bottom of the pot and swirl it to coat. Next, I put part of the drained rice into the bottom of the pot and spread it into a thin layer. I pour the ground beef, tomato, and lubia mixture into the center of the layer. Then I pour the rest of the rice on top of this and mound it up. Some folks alternate layers of lubia mixture and rice but I find that transferring it from the pot to the serving dish distributes everything pretty well.

I poke a few holes down through the lubia and rice mixture and then pour about ¼ cup water around the pot. I place a double layer of paper towels over the top of the pot before placing the lid onto the pot. I cook this over medium heat.

After the rice has been dammed for about an hour or until you hear a sizzle when you quickly touch the lower side of the pot with your wet finger, the lubia polo is ready.

I use a spatula to remove the lubia polo from the pot, fluffing it as I add it to the serving dish. After I have removed all of the rice, I use the spatula to remove the thin, crunchy bottom layer that remains in the pot. I place this crunchy pot bottom or tahdig onto a separate plate.