Mansaf

Ingredients

• 1.8kg bone-in lamb shoulder or leg, cut into large pieces
• 500g jameed (dried fermented yoghurt) or 1kg jameed paste
• 500g short-grain or Egyptian rice
• 1 large onion
• 4 cardamom pods
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1.5 tsp ground cardamom
• 2 tsp fine salt
• 60g ghee
• 3 large shrak or markook flatbreads
• 100g flaked almonds and pine nuts
• 3 tbsp chopped parsley

Before you cook

• Break the jameed balls into pieces and soak them in two litres of warm water overnight, changing nothing, until they soften into a thick liquid.
• Rinse the lamb pieces and pat them dry.
• Rinse the rice until the water runs clear and soak it for twenty minutes.
• Quarter the onion.

Steps

1. Blend the soaked jameed and its water in batches until completely smooth, then push it through a sieve into a bowl.
2. Put the lamb in a large pot, cover it with cold water, and bring it to a boil.
3. Skim the grey foam from the surface carefully for several minutes until the liquid runs clear.
4. Add the onion, cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and peppercorns to the pot.
5. Simmer the lamb, partly covered, for two hours, until the meat is tender enough to pull away from the bone with a fork.
6. Lift the lamb pieces onto a tray and strain the broth, keeping one litre of it.
7. Pour the sieved jameed into a clean pot and set it over medium-low heat.
8. Stir the jameed constantly in one direction with a wooden spoon as it comes up to temperature, because it will curdle if you let it sit still or boil hard.
9. Add the reserved lamb broth gradually and keep stirring until the sauce is smooth and just below a simmer.
10. Season the sauce with the turmeric, ground cardamom and salt, and taste it; jameed is very salty, so add salt cautiously.
11. Slide the lamb pieces into the jameed sauce and hold everything at a bare simmer for thirty minutes.
12. Drain the rice and put it in a pot with half the ghee over medium heat, stirring for two minutes.
13. Pour in seven hundred and fifty millilitres of hot water, add a pinch of salt, and bring it to a boil.
14. Cover the rice, drop the heat to low, and cook it for eighteen minutes, then rest it off the heat for ten.
15. Toast the almonds and pine nuts in the remaining ghee in a small pan until golden.
16. Lay the shrak bread across a very large tray so it covers the base and overhangs the edges.
17. Ladle enough jameed sauce over the bread to soak it thoroughly.
18. Spread the cooked rice over the soaked bread in an even mound.
19. Arrange the lamb pieces on top of the rice.
20. Spoon more sauce over the meat and scatter over the toasted nuts and parsley.
21. Serve the remaining sauce hot in a jug alongside, for pouring as people eat.