Lamb kabsa

Before you start

• dried limes and a cinnamon stick — kabsa tastes of those, not of chilli
• a wide pot with a tight lid
• about two hours

Ingredients

Serves 4 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 700glamb shoulder — on the bone, in big pieces
• 400gbasmati rice
• 3 tspghee or oil
• 2onions
• 3tomatoes
• 2 tbsptomato purée
• 1carrot
• 4 tspkabsa spice: cinnamon, clove, cardamom, black lime, coriander
• 2dried limes

Method

7 steps

1. chop · 8m

   Onions sliced, tomatoes chopped, carrot grated, dried limes pierced.

2. fry · 15m

   Lamb browned hard in the ghee and lifted out, then the onions cooked in the same fat until properly gold rather than pale.

3. simmer · 1h 15m walk away

   Spices for a minute, then tomatoes, purée, the lamb back in and water to cover. Lid on, low, until the meat is loose on the bone.

4. fold · 6m

   Meat out. Strain and measure the broth to twice the rice’s volume, top up if short, and stir the rinsed rice and grated carrot in.

5. simmer · 18m walk away

   Lid on, lowest heat, undisturbed. Lifting the lid to look is what gives you half-cooked kabsa.

6. rest · 10m walk away

   Off the heat, covered, ten minutes.

7. finish · 6m

   Rice out onto a wide platter, lamb piled in the middle, and the pieces browned under a hot grill first if you want the edges crisp.