Beyran

Built bowl by bowl over a fierce flame, from lamb that was cooked the night before.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

the long cook

• 1.2 kg lamb neck, on the bone
• 400 g lamb cheek, if you can get it
• 2 onions, halved
• 3 litres water
• 2 teaspoons salt

for each bowl

• 150 g rice, boiled and drained
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon hot red pepper paste
• 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes
• salt and black pepper

to serve

• lemon wedges

Method

1. IT IS BUILT BOWL BY BOWL OVER A FIERCE FLAME, from lamb that was cooked the night before. There is no pot of finished soup. The lamb and its broth are made in advance and kept; then for each serving, a copper bowl goes straight onto the hottest flame with butter, garlic and pepper paste, the pulled meat and the boiled rice go in, the broth is ladled over, and the whole thing is brought to a violent boil for perhaps ninety seconds and carried to the table still moving. That assembly is the dish. Ladled out of a simmering cauldron it is a decent lamb and rice soup with none of the bite the last ninety seconds gives it.
2. THE CUT IS NECK AND CHEEK, AND BOTH ARE ON THE BONE. Neither is a soup cut by accident: both are worked muscle threaded with connective tissue, which over three hours turns to gelatine and gives the broth a body no amount of lean lamb will. Cheek is the better of the two and the harder to find; neck alone is fine and leg is not.
3. THE BROTH IS COOLED AND THE FAT LEFT ON. Chilled overnight, a lid of white fat sets on top. It is stirred back in, not lifted off -- the fat is what carries the pepper and makes the surface of each bowl slick and red. Skimmed, the soup is thin and the paste sits in it as grit.
4. THE GARLIC IS CRUSHED RAW INTO THE HOT BUTTER AND NOT BROWNED. Four cloves a bowl, which is a great deal, in for ten or fifteen seconds only before the liquid goes in. Browned, it turns sweet and nutty and the soup loses its sharpness; raw into hot fat and immediately wetted, it stays pungent.
5. THE RICE IS COOKED SEPARATELY AND ARRIVES ALREADY DONE. Boiled, drained and set aside. Cooked in the broth it would release starch and cloud it, and in the ninety seconds the bowl gets it would not cook at all.
6. THE LAMB IS PULLED INTO THREADS, NOT CUBED. Off the bone by hand while still warm, into coarse shreds that take up the broth. Cubes stay as cubes and the soup eats as two separate things.
7. The lamb neck and cheek put in a large pot with the onions, water and salt.
8. Brought to the boil, SKIMMED, then simmered 3 HOURS until the meat falls from the bone.
9. The meat lifted out and PULLED INTO THREADS by hand. The broth strained.
10. Both COOLED and refrigerated OVERNIGHT. The set fat left ON the broth.
11. The rice boiled, drained and set aside.
12. FOR EACH BOWL: a small heavy pan or metal bowl set over the HIGHEST heat with the butter.
13. The crushed garlic in for 10 to 15 SECONDS ONLY -- not browned -- then the pepper paste stirred in.
14. A quarter of the rice and a quarter of the pulled lamb added.
15. Hot broth ladled over, the fat stirred back IN, and brought to a VIOLENT BOIL for 90 SECONDS.
16. Seasoned, scattered with Aleppo pepper and carried to the table STILL BOILING.
17. TESTED: it should reach the table moving, with a slick red surface. A calm bowl means it was assembled too slowly.
18. Lemon squeezed in at the table.

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 Turkey · All recipes