İskilip Dolması

Nothing is stuffed — the rice steams in a cloth bag above the meat and the pot is sealed shut with dough.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

the pot

• 2 kg lamb shoulder, in large pieces, on the bone
• 4 onions, sliced
• 250 g butter
• 100 ml olive oil
• 600 ml water
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons black pepper

the rice

• 800 g long-grain rice, rinsed and soaked
• 2 teaspoons salt
• a clean cotton cloth or muslin, about 50 cm square
• kitchen string

to seal the pot

• 300 g plain flour
• water, to make a stiff paste

Method

1. NOTHING IS STUFFED. The name puts it among the stuffed dishes and it belongs there only by resemblance -- there is no vine leaf, no pepper, no hollowed vegetable anywhere in it. What it is instead is a sealed pot in which lamb cooks in butter at the bottom while rice steams in a cloth bag hanging above it, taking up the steam coming off the meat. Knowing that before starting saves a good deal of confusion, because every instinct the name provokes is wrong.
2. THE RICE GOES INTO A CLOTH BAG AND SITS ABOVE THE MEAT, NOT IN THE LIQUID. Soaked rice, loosely tied in a cotton cloth with plenty of room to swell -- half empty, not packed -- and set on top of the lamb so it is clear of the water. It cooks entirely in steam, which is why each grain stays separate and dry while tasting completely of lamb. Tied tightly, the rice at the centre stays hard; sitting in the liquid, it boils into a mass.
3. THE POT IS SEALED SHUT WITH A ROPE OF STIFF FLOUR PASTE. Flour and water worked to a stiff dough, rolled into a long sausage, and pressed all round the join between pot and lid, with the lid then pressed down into it. It bakes hard and makes the pot genuinely airtight, so nothing escapes over the long cook and the pressure inside rises a little. A lid merely weighted down lets the steam out and the rice above never cooks.
4. A SMALL HOLE IS LEFT, OR THE SEAL IS BROKEN BY THE PRESSURE. One gap the width of a finger in the dough rope. With no vent at all the seal cracks somewhere of its own choosing, usually messily.
5. THE BUTTER IS TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY GRAMS AND IS NOT REDUCIBLE. It is the cooking medium for the lamb and, as vapour and fat carried up on the steam, the thing that flavours the rice. Cut it down and the rice is plain steamed rice.
6. IT COOKS FOR FOUR HOURS AND IS NOT OPENED TO CHECK. Low oven, sealed, four hours. Opening it loses the steam the rice is cooking in and the seal cannot be remade; the whole method depends on committing to it.
7. THE ONIONS GO IN UNDER THE MEAT AND ARE NOT BROWNED. Sliced raw, spread on the base with the oil. Over four hours they collapse into a sweet bed and keep the lamb off the metal.
8. The rice rinsed and SOAKED 1 HOUR, then drained and salted.
9. The sliced onions spread in the base of a very large heavy casserole with the olive oil.
10. The lamb laid on top in large pieces, seasoned, and the butter dotted over in lumps.
11. The water poured down the side -- 600 ml, no more.
12. The drained rice tied LOOSELY in the cloth, HALF EMPTY so it can swell, and set ON TOP OF THE LAMB, clear of the water.
13. The flour worked with water to a STIFF paste and rolled into a long rope.
14. The rope pressed all round the rim and the lid pressed down into it, leaving ONE finger-width GAP as a vent.
15. Baked at 150°C for 4 HOURS. NOT OPENED.
16. The seal broken, the bag lifted out and the rice turned out into a wide dish.
17. The lamb pulled off the bone and laid over the rice with the buttery onions from the base spooned over.
18. TESTED: the rice should be separate, dry and strongly flavoured of lamb. Wet or clumped rice means the bag touched the liquid.

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