Giouvetsi

Lamb braised until it is nearly done and then finished in the oven with raw orzo, which cooks in the braising liquid.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains kefalotyri whose rennet the source does not name, lamb.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg lamb shoulder, in 4 cm cubes
• 400 g orzo
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 400 g tinned tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 150 ml red wine
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• about 1 litre hot stock or water
• 150 g kefalotyri, grated
• salt and pepper

Method

1. THE ORZO GOES IN RAW AND COOKS IN THE BRAISING LIQUID, which is the entire dish. Boiled separately and stirred in, it is pasta with a stew on it; cooked in the pot, it takes up everything the lamb gave off and swells into it. That is also why the liquid looks far too much when it goes in the oven -- it is the orzo's cooking water as well as the sauce.
2. THE RATIO IS ABOUT TWO AND A HALF TO ONE, liquid to orzo, and it is worth measuring rather than guessing. Too little and the top layer stays hard and the bottom catches; too much and it is soup. Four hundred grams of orzo wants about a litre.
3. AND IT IS STIRRED ONCE, HALFWAY. Orzo sinks and the top dries; left alone it cooks unevenly, but stirred often it goes starchy and gluey.
4. Lamb patted dry and seasoned.
5. Oil in a heavy casserole over a high heat, lamb browned in three batches and lifted out. Crowding steams it.
6. Onions in the same pan, 8 minutes. Garlic 1 minute.
7. Wine in and bubbled away. Tomatoes, purée, cinnamon, bay and allspice in.
8. Lamb back with just enough water to cover, lid on, and simmered gently 1 hour 15 minutes until nearly tender. It will finish in the oven.
9. Transferred to a wide oven dish. The hot stock added to bring the liquid up to roughly two and a half times the volume of the orzo, and tasted for salt -- the orzo will take a good deal.
10. Orzo stirred in raw.
11. Covered with foil and into a 180C oven for 25 minutes.
12. STIRRED ONCE at this point, the foil replaced, and 15 minutes more.
13. Foil off, cheese scattered over, and 10 minutes more until the top is patched brown. Rested 15 minutes -- it thickens considerably as it stands.

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.

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