Usban — Libya

Usban is a stuffed tripe dish found across the Maghreb, prepared here in its Libyan form. A cleaned sheep's tripe casing is filled with a mixture of parboiled rice, minced lamb, chopped liver and heart, onion, tomato, parsley and a blend of warming spices, then closed and cooked slowly until firm enough to slice. In Libya this dish belongs to the wider family of stuffed offal preparations eaten at family gatherings and religious festivals, most notably around Eid al-Adha, when a sheep is set aside for the household. Cooks in coastal towns such as Tripoli and Benghazi, as well as inland communities, prepare their own batches ahead of the celebration, and the dish is shared rather than kept for one household alone. Preparation starts with washing and turning the tripe inside out, then soaking it with salt, lemon and vinegar to remove any residual odor. The filling is mixed raw or lightly precooked, spooned into the casing, and the open ends are sewn shut with kitchen thread or skewered closed. The parcel is then poached gently in a seasoned broth or steamed for one to two hours, until the rice has swollen and the tripe has become tender. The Libyan reading of usban leans on the local spice cupboard: dried chilli, cumin, coriander, turmeric and sometimes a spoonful of harissa color the stuffing red-orange and give it a warmer, more pungent edge than versions from further west. It is usually sliced into rounds and served warm alongside couscous or plain rice, with the cooking broth spooned over the top, rather than eaten as a standalone dish.