Tirit

Stale bread is the body of the dish, and the broth is poured over it at the table.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

the broth

• 1 kg lamb shank or neck, on the bone
• 1 onion, halved
• 2 litres water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns

the base

• 400 g stale flatbread or sourdough, torn
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons butter

to finish

• 300 g thick yoghurt
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 60 g butter
• 2 teaspoons Aleppo pepper flakes
• black pepper

Method

1. STALE BREAD IS THE BODY OF THE DISH, AND THE BROTH IS POURED OVER IT AT THE TABLE. Four hundred grams of it, torn and layered in the bottom of a wide dish -- not a crouton, not a thickener, the substance of the thing. It must be genuinely stale, two or three days old and dry enough to be hard. Dry bread absorbs the broth and holds its structure, swelling into something between a dumpling and a bread pudding. Fresh bread turns to paste on contact and the dish becomes a bowl of wet crumbs, which is why this is a dish for the end of a loaf and not one to buy bread for.
2. THE BROTH GOES ON AT THE LAST MOMENT AND IS POURED, NOT STIRRED. Boiling hot, ladled over the arranged bread in front of whoever is eating it, and eaten within a minute or two. Assembled in the kitchen and carried through, even briefly, the bread has already gone past swollen to collapsed.
3. ONLY ENOUGH BROTH TO SOAK, NOT TO SWIM. The bread should be saturated and the dish should have no standing liquid around it. Judge it by pouring in stages and waiting a few seconds between -- the bread takes up a great deal and then abruptly stops.
4. THE BROTH IS WORTH THREE HOURS AND A BONE. Shank or neck on the bone, skimmed, three hours. Everything the dish tastes of is in that liquid, and there is nothing else in the bowl to carry flavour -- bread, broth, yoghurt and butter. A stock cube version is exactly as good as the cube.
5. THE YOGHURT GOES ON IN SPOONFULS, NOT SPREAD. Garlicky yoghurt dropped in patches over the soaked bread, so some mouthfuls have it and some do not. Spread into a layer it cools the whole dish and dulls the broth.
6. THE SLICED ONION IS SOFTENED SLOWLY AND GOES UNDER THE BREAD. Fifteen minutes in butter until sweet and collapsed, spread in the dish first. Underneath it perfumes the bread as the broth soaks down; on top it is just onions.
7. The lamb, onion halves, water, salt and peppercorns brought to the boil and SKIMMED.
8. Simmered 3 HOURS. The meat lifted out, boned and pulled into shreds; the broth STRAINED and kept at a ROLLING BOIL.
9. The sliced onion softened in the 2 tablespoons of butter 15 MINUTES, until sweet and collapsed.
10. The softened onion spread in the base of a wide shallow dish.
11. The STALE bread torn and layered over it.
12. The pulled lamb scattered on top.
13. The yoghurt beaten with the crushed garlic and salt.
14. The 60 g of butter melted until foaming and the Aleppo pepper stirred in off the heat.
15. AT THE TABLE: the BOILING broth ladled over in stages, waiting a few seconds between, until the bread is saturated and no liquid stands around it.
16. The yoghurt dropped on in SPOONFULS and the pepper butter poured over.
17. TESTED: the bread should be swollen and distinct, not pasty. Eaten within a minute or two.

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