Buğu Kebabı

Steamed in a sealed pot with no added liquid and no flame — the name means steam.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg lamb shoulder, on the bone, in large pieces
• 4 onions, thickly sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, whole
• 4 tomatoes, quartered
• 2 long green peppers, in pieces
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• plain flour and water, for sealing the lid

Method

1. IT IS STEAMED IN A SEALED POT WITH NO ADDED LIQUID AND NO FLAME, and the name says so -- buğu means steam. Nothing in this dish is grilled, which among twelve charcoal kebabs is the point of it. Lamb, onion, tomato and pepper go into a heavy pot, the lid is luted shut with a rope of flour-and-water paste, and it goes into a low oven for three hours. Not a drop of stock or water is added: four onions and four tomatoes give up more than enough liquid, and with the lid sealed none of it can leave. What comes out is lamb that falls off the bone in a concentrated broth that tastes only of itself. Add water and it is a stew; leave the lid loose and it reduces to a roast.
2. THE LID IS SEALED WITH FLOUR PASTE, NOT FOIL. A rope of stiff flour-and-water dough pressed round the rim and the lid set into it. It bakes hard and makes a genuine seal that holds for three hours; foil crimped over a rim lifts as the pressure rises and the steam finds its way out. The seal is broken at the table, which is half the pleasure -- the smell arrives all at once.
3. THE ONIONS GO UNDERNEATH AND THE MEAT ON TOP. A thick bed of sliced onion on the base, lamb on it, everything else around. The onions insulate the meat from the hot base so nothing catches, and they are the main source of the liquid, so they need to be where the heat is.
4. NOTHING IS BROWNED FIRST, AND THAT IS DELIBERATE. Every other slow lamb dish on this site browns the meat for depth. Here browning would be pointless -- there is no evaporation to concentrate a fond, and the clean, pale, intensely lamb-and-onion flavour is what the method is for. A browned buğu kebabı tastes like an ordinary braise.
5. IT IS NOT OPENED TO CHECK AND THE TIME IS THE ONLY GUIDE. Breaking the seal at two hours loses the steam that is doing the cooking and the seal cannot be remade. Three hours at 150°C for a kilo and a half on the bone; if the meat is not falling apart when it is opened, the lid goes back loosely for another forty minutes and the dish is slightly the worse for it.
6. A heavy ovenproof pot with a well-fitting lid.
7. The sliced onions spread thickly over the BASE.
8. The lamb pieces laid on top of the onion, then the garlic, tomatoes, peppers, bay, oregano, salt and pepper.
9. NO water, stock or wine added. Nothing browned.
10. A stiff paste made from flour and water, rolled into a rope, and pressed round the rim of the pot.
11. The lid set into the paste and pressed down to SEAL it all the way round.
12. Cooked at 150°C for 3 HOURS. NOT opened.
13. Taken out and left 10 minutes, then carried to the table SEALED.
14. The paste seal broken at the table and the lid lifted.
15. TESTED: the meat should fall from the bone at a touch and sit in a good depth of its own broth.
16. If it resists, the lid goes back loosely for 40 MINUTES.
17. The bay removed and the broth tasted for salt.
18. Served from the pot with bread, with plenty of the broth spooned over.

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