Timman wa margat bamya

As tradition built it

Serves 4. About 1 hour 40 minutes, with the rice cooked alongside.

Ingredients

The stew

• 900g to 1.25kg lamb or beef on the bone, in 4 to 6 pieces
• 250ml hot water, for braising the meat
• 1 tbsp oil
• 5 to 6 cloves garlic, whole, in their skins
• 3 heaped tbsp tomato paste, diluted in 950ml hot water
• 450g okra, small, both ends trimmed and parboiled 5 minutes
• 1½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp pomegranate syrup, or ½ tsp sugar with 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 to 3 small dried hot chillies, whole, if you like it hot
• to serve onion, sliced
• to serve green pepper, sliced

The rice

• 450g rice, anbar if you can get it, washed and soaked 30 minutes
• 860ml cold water, the rice's soaking water
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1½ tsp salt

Method

1. Brown the meat in the oil in a heavy pot, about 10 minutes. Add 250ml hot water, just enough to barely cover it, bring it to the boil, skim, and simmer covered on a low heat until the meat is tender and the water has gone, about 45 minutes. If it is tender with liquid still in the pot, strain that liquid and count it towards the tomato water.
2. Add the garlic cloves and stir them with the meat over a medium heat for half a minute.
3. Stir in the diluted tomato paste, the okra, the salt, the pomegranate syrup and the chillies if using. Bring it to the boil, skim, then lower the heat and simmer covered until the okra is done and the sauce has thickened, 35 to 40 minutes. Stir it gently two or three times, no more, or the okra breaks.
4. For the rice, put it in a heavy pot with its soaking water, the oil and the salt. Bring it to the boil covered on a high heat for 5 minutes, until the water has nearly gone and holes show in the surface. Turn the heat low, loosen it once with a fork, cover tightly and leave it 20 minutes, lifting it twice with the fork so it fluffs.
5. Spoon the rice out without disturbing the base, then lift the crust and set it on top. Serve the stew over the rice with slices of onion and green pepper beside, and give everyone at least one of the garlic cloves to squeeze from its skin.

Notes

The pot is Nawal Nasrallah's Baghdad one, from Delights from the Garden of Eden. In Basra the stew is soured with a pierced nomi Basra instead of pomegranate, seasoned with baharat, and an onion is browned with the meat; that is the Basran pot the chapter describes, and no Basran cook has yet put numbers on it.

What a modern chef changes

The okra kept whole, the crust guaranteed

Rungs 1, 4 and 5

Method

1. Sear the okra whole in a dry pan first; it holds its shape in the broth and the mucilage stays inside it.
2. Steam the rice in a pot you have weighed the fat into, 30 grams a cup, with a cloth under the lid; the cloth takes the steam that would otherwise fall back and soften the crust.
3. Add the dried lime for the last 20 minutes only, pierced in three places, and press it against the side of the pot before serving.
4. Serve the crust as its own plate, the way the pot's owner eats it.