Abgoosht

It is cooked in one pot and then strained, and the solids are pounded into a second course.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

• 1 kg lamb neck or shank, on the bone
• 200 g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
• 150 g dried white beans, soaked overnight
• 2 onions, quartered
• 500 g potatoes, peeled and halved
• 3 tomatoes, halved
• 2 teaspoons turmeric
• 4 dried limes, pierced twice each
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• flatbread, raw onion and pickles, to serve

Method

1. IT IS COOKED IN ONE POT AND THEN STRAINED, AND THE SOLIDS ARE POUNDED INTO A SECOND COURSE. This is the dish and it is not a serving suggestion. Its article is explicit: the ingredients are combined and cooked until done, at which point the dish is strained, and the solids are mashed as gusht kubideh -- mashed meat -- which is wanted in two stages. The broth is drunk or spooned first with pieces of fresh or dried bread, and then the mash is eaten with bread, onion and pickles. One pot, two courses, half an hour apart. Served undivided it is a perfectly good stew and it is not this dish.
2. THE MASHING IS DONE HARD AND THE BONES COME OUT FIRST. Lift out the solids, pick out every bone and the dried limes, and pound the rest -- meat, chickpeas, beans, potato, onion -- to a coarse paste with a heavy pestle or a masher. Its article notes it is sometimes put through a grinder and sometimes left unbeaten. What you want is a spreadable paste, not a purée: it is eaten on bread.
3. THE PULSES ARE SOAKED OVERNIGHT AND GO IN FIRST. Chickpeas and white beans, soaked twelve hours, drained, and into the pot with the lamb, the onions and the turmeric. Unsoaked pulses will still be chalky after three hours, long past the point where the meat has given up.
4. THE DRIED LIMES ARE PIERCED AND NOT CRUSHED. Two holes in each with a skewer so the inside can leach out. Crushed or broken open, the seeds and membrane go into the broth and turn it bitter in a way that gets worse the longer it cooks. Four for this quantity, added after the first hour.
5. THE POTATOES AND TOMATOES GO IN FOR THE LAST FORTY MINUTES. Earlier and they disintegrate into the broth, which both clouds it and leaves nothing to mash.
6. IT IS A THREE-HOUR SIMMER AND IT IS NEVER BOILED. Barely trembling, lid on, skimmed in the first twenty minutes. A rolling boil emulsifies the fat into the broth and you lose the clear first course.
7. THE CROCK IS PART OF IT. Its article records the other name, dizi, as the stoneware pot it is served in -- a glazed crock that holds heat, brought to the table and poured off there. A warmed bowl does the job if you have no crock.
8. VARIATIONS ARE IN THE BEANS AND THE MEAT, NOT THE METHOD. Its article lists kidney beans and black-eyed peas as alternatives, a version around Urmia made with beef, lime, kidney beans and chickpeas and eaten with onions and lavash in winter, and an Armenian one using beef rather than lamb. All of them are strained and mashed.

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 Iran · All recipes