Torly

The vegetables are layered in order of how long they take, rather than piled in together.

Beef, Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains beef, lamb.

Ingredients

• 600 g lamb or beef, in large cubes
• 3 potatoes, in thick rounds
• 3 carrots, in thick rounds
• 3 courgettes, in thick rounds
• 200 g green beans, topped
• 200 g peas
• 2 green peppers, in rings
• 2 onions, sliced
• 4 tomatoes, sliced
• 4 tablespoons tomato purée
• 100 ml olive oil
• 600 ml hot stock
• 2 teaspoons ground allspice
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. THE VEGETABLES ARE LAYERED IN ORDER OF HOW LONG THEY TAKE, rather than piled in together. Onions and meat on the bottom, then carrots, then potatoes, then green beans and peppers, then courgettes, with tomato slices over the top. The order is doing the work that cutting to different sizes would otherwise have to: the bottom of a covered dish is wetter and hotter than the top, so the things that need the most cooking go where the most cooking happens, and the courgettes that would collapse sit high and dry. Tipped in all together and stirred, something is always either raw or gone.
2. IT IS NOT STIRRED ONCE IT IS IN. Not once. The whole arrangement depends on the layers staying where they were put, and a stir at the halfway mark undoes it and breaks the courgettes.
3. THE MEAT IS BROWNED FIRST AND NOTHING ELSE IS. Cubed, browned hard in the oil, and laid on the onions. It is the only browned flavour in a dish that then bakes gently, and the vegetables are deliberately not pre-fried -- they are meant to taste of themselves and of olive oil.
4. THE STOCK ONLY REACHES A THIRD OF THE WAY UP. Six hundred millilitres for a dish this size. The vegetables release a great deal, and the finished bake should be glossy and concentrated rather than sitting in broth. The top layers roast while the bottom ones braise, which is the point of not drowning it.
5. IT IS COVERED FOR MOST OF THE TIME AND UNCOVERED AT THE END. Foil on at 180°C for an hour and a quarter, then off for half an hour so the top colours and the liquid reduces. Covered throughout it is pale and wet; uncovered throughout the top dries before the meat is done.
6. THE TOMATO PURÉE IS WHISKED INTO THE STOCK, NOT DOTTED ABOUT. Four tablespoons into the hot stock before it is poured, so it reaches every layer. Spooned on top it stays on top.
7. The olive oil heated and the meat browned HARD in batches.
8. The sliced onions spread in the base of a large deep dish, and the browned meat laid on them with its oil.
9. LAYERED IN ORDER: carrots, then potatoes, then green beans and peas and peppers, then courgettes.
10. The tomato slices laid over the top. Seasoned with the allspice, salt and pepper between the layers.
11. The tomato purée whisked into the HOT stock and poured down the side, to about a THIRD of the way up.
12. Covered with foil and baked at 180°C for 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES. NOT STIRRED.
13. Uncovered and baked a further 30 MINUTES, until the top has coloured.
14. TESTED: the potatoes should be soft and the courgettes should still hold their rounds. Collapsed courgettes mean they were layered too low.
15. Rested 15 MINUTES and served from the dish with bread.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Egypt · All recipes