From Tarek's mother · Main courses
Lamb Shoulder Maklouba
A childhood favourite made with slow-cooked lamb, layered rice, aubergine and potatoes, finished with a little Bazaar refinement.
✧ From the Bazaar cookbook ✧
This is the dish of my childhood. On Egyptian summer mornings we played football in the street while my mother went to the market. If I saw aubergines in her shopping bag when she came home, I knew there would be maklouba later.
I would stop playing early and run home to watch her cook and try to help. I was mostly in the way, but she was always patient. She explained every step and every detail. As the afternoon went on, the house filled with the smell of spices, lamb cooking slowly, and onions caramelising with cinnamon. That smell was the envy of the whole neighbourhood. What a great cook she was.
This dish is my homage to my mum. It reaffirms what I have always believed: every great chef first learns his craft from his mother, as a child.
— Tarek Thoma BEM
Method
The day before · Roast the lamb
- Heat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan / gas 2). Put the lamb in a roasting tray about 7.5cm (3in) deep with a handful of the onion, 15g of the salt and some pepper.
- Pour in water to about 5cm (2in) deep, so the lamb is almost covered. Cover tightly with foil and roast for 5 hours, topping up the water every hour so it never dries out.
- Lift out the lamb and its soft onions and keep all the cooking liquid: this is your stock. Don't wash the tray.
On the day
- Rice. Taste the stock first: it is already seasoned from the lamb. Cover the rice with stock to 2.5cm (1in) above it, topping up with water if you're short. Add up to 6g salt only if needed. Simmer until only 2–3mm of liquid shows, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for 30 minutes.
- Mince. Fry the remaining onion in 20ml of the oil until soft and translucent. Add the spice mix and the mince and cook for 15–20 minutes, draining any fat. Stir into the rice with the raisins, and taste.
- Vegetables. Slice the aubergines 1cm (½in) thick, brush with the remaining oil and roast at 200°C (180°C fan / gas 6) for about 25–30 minutes, turning once, until deep golden and fully cooked. Peel the potatoes, slice 1cm (½in) thick and simmer in stock or water until tender.
- Lamb. Tear the lamb into shreds and mix with its roasted onions and a few spoonfuls of jus.
- Build. In the unwashed tray or a deep pan, layer the potatoes, half the rice, the aubergines, the lamb, then the rest of the rice. Press down firmly with the back of a spoon after each layer, so it holds its shape. Cover and return to the oven at 150°C for 15–30 minutes.
- Rest and turn. Rest for at least 15–30 minutes: this sets the layers. Put a large platter on top and turn it over in one confident move.
- Finish. Spoon over the jus, scatter with pine nuts and pomegranate, and serve with tzatziki and plenty of cucumber.
Chef's tips
- Use a light hand with the spices. Too much and you lose the hero of the dish, the lamb.
- Tear the lamb, don't cut it, and don't wash the tray. Both carry all the flavour into the maklouba.
- Pale aubergine will spoil the dish. It must be deep golden and fully cooked.
- Toast the pine nuts on a tray at 150°C (130°C fan / gas 2) for 15 minutes.
- Rest it longer if you can. In the Middle East we leave maklouba for two or three hours and eat it just above room temperature.
No Bazaar jus?
Skim the fat from the leftover stock and boil it hard until reduced by half and glossy. To plate like Bazaar, press the layers into 4 ring moulds or small bowls instead, and turn out onto plates.
✧ Read it. Cook it. Taste it at Bazaar. ✧