Tandır lamb is a dish that you can find in any Turkish restaurant. Here, I have taken the main principles but added some extras.
It makes the perfect dish for New Year. Serve for a dinner party with added pitta, spiced rice and a pomegranate salad.
As a big rustic stew after the fireworks or leave to cook all day whilst your family goes on a New Years Day walk.
Ingredients
This recipe will serve between 4 and 6 people
1 x 1.8kg leg of lamb
6 garlic cloves
For the marinade
200g plain yoghurt
30ml tomato puree
60ml olive oil
For the sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp red pepper flakes
4 large chopped tomatoes
1 large onion
2 cups of water
Method
Mix together the tomato puree, yoghurt and olive oil. Spread over the lamb and leave to marinade for two hours.
With a sharp knife very carefully make tiny slits in the lamb. Insert the garlic cloves into these holes. In a large frying pan brown the meat until the outside is nicely caramalised.
Place into a large casserole dish. Next chop the tomatoes and the onion and place around the lamb. Sprinkle over the salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and add the water.
This dish is the epitome of low and slow. Cook at 140 degrees for at least 3 hours. You will need to baste every hour or so but it is very forgiving. The longer you can cook it the better. My record is 9 hours before I succumbed to the smell!
I like to serve with basmatti rice that has been flavoured with raisins, apricots, cinnamon, walnuts and pomegranate seeds.
Afiyet Olsun 🙂
Comments