This Slow Cooked Lamb & Rice BLEW MY MIND 🤯

does not get much better than this .

Mm .

If you ever need a dish that will blow your guests mind , make this sort of yen .

I came across this Yemeni lamb and rice dish on my friend Aam Cook's Instagram page , and I've been dreaming of making it ever since .

Lamb is coated in a load of spices , then slowly braised before it's topped with two fantastic types of rice .

It's served with a load of fried onions , as well as a fantastic herb and chilli sauce called Saha .

We've adapted this recipe from from one .

And let me tell you this recipe absolutely slaps .

It all begins with making a Yemeni spice mix called age .

This is an earthy blend of spices that are used in many Yemeni recipes .

To make it , we'll start by toasting some spices , which will awaken the oils and flavour compounds in them .

I'm using whole spices because they maintain their flavour for longer .

But if you have all of these pre ground , then you're good to go in a cold pan and two tablespoons of cumin seeds , followed by two teaspoons of black peppercorns and two teaspoons of green carbon on pods .

Next add 1.5 teaspoons of coriander seeds , a quarter teaspoon of cloves and finally , a one inch chunk of cinnamon or about one teaspoon .

If you're missing some spices , you can leave them out , but it will change the flavour of the mix slightly .

Turn the heat to medium , then heat these for about 2 to 4 minutes , stirring the pan often when you get a strong smell of spices , the aromas should be fully awake , and these should then be poured out into a bowl to cool for a few minutes .

Once they have cooled slightly and are no longer hot to the touch , we need to grind them down to a powder with the help of a spice grinder .

If you don't have one , you can use a blender or pestle and mortar , but a dedicated spice grinder will make your life easier , feeding some of the spices to the grinder .

Then , in short pulses , grind that down into a fine powder .

I did this over two batches because that's all my machine can take , and in the end , this is what I was left with .

We're going to use most of this on our lamb but any leftovers can be used as an all-purpose seasoning .

Now the next step is to coat our meat in the spices , and today we're using two kilogramme of lamb shoulder , which has been cut into very large chunks .

Ask your butcher to cut your meat this way because after braising it for a few hours , we'll still have chunks which are large and big enough to really sink your teeth into .

If you can't get lamb , then maybe go for something like beef short rib , which will have a similar amount of fat and texture to the lamb shoulder .

Now to the meat you're supposed to add three tablespoons of spice mix , four teaspoons of salt and two tablespoons of vegetable oil .

But I messed up , it said .

Mix those three ingredients in a bowl so you are left with a paste and pour that over the lamb .

I rubbed my dry spices into the lamb , and whether you're using a paste or dry spices , make sure to thoroughly mix these so that every single side of the meat is coated evenly in the spices .

The next step is to sear the meat so to the pan from earlier I added the missing oil , then heated it on high .

Once it had heated briefly , I added about half of the meat , and here's where I messed up for the second time .

The pan wasn't perfectly flat , and so there was no oil in the middle and those pieces of meat started to burn .

But no worries .

I flipped all the meat over and then focused on giving them as good a sea as possible .

Now off camera , I had a second pan going , which is better at evenly searing the meat .

You should aim for your meat to be this evenly brown colour all over when you're done .

After that , the next step is to deglaze your pan , but instead of liquid , add one tablespoon of oil , then add in 350 grammes of onions , chopped to a small dice and follow the top with 350 grammes of tomatoes also chopped to a small dice .

Next you'll add eight cloves of garlic .

It should be sliced into extremely thin slices like this and then give the pan a very good mix .

The onions and tomatoes will deglaze all those stuck on bits of frond and you should cook this over medium heat until everything begins to caramelise that will first start by the vegetables , releasing loads of liquid .

Then , after a few minutes , they'll start to fry like this .

Now I had two pans to deglaze , so I did it in two batches and then mix those two together in the end .

This is what you want those vegetables to look like , and I must say they smell fantastic .

We're now ready to braise the meat , and I'm gonna be doing it in this large serving thingy that Selma bought .

But you can use a Dutch oven instead .

You could also pressure .

Cook this and you'll start by laying the meat in the bottom of the dish .

Once that's all in there , you'll add on the caramelised onions , tomatoes and garlic .

Make to spread it out evenly throughout the whole dish .

Next , add in full bay leaves , then pour over 1.5 litres of lamb or beef stock .

I didn't have any fresh stock on hand , so I just used a stock tube and poured over boiling water .

Then , when that was dissolved , I added in 1.5 teaspoons of salt that went into the pot .

And then it's just a matter of trying to submerge all the meat .

Once it's as good as it will get , cover it with a tight fitting lid , and this is ready to go into an oven preheated to 1 80 degrees Celsius .

Set a timer for 2.5 hours , and that should be enough time to get your meat mostly cooked .

While that's cooking , we can make a Herbie chilli sauce that might just change your life .

There's a lot of different names used for this sauce , including sahas and in English .

It's commonly called Z .

The first ingredient for this is two mild green peppers .

If you're using regular bell peppers , use only one .

Next , you'll need three green chilies .

One of them should be hot , and the other two can be mild varieties .

You also need four green onions , one large plant tomato , about 10 sprigs of coriander and three sprigs of mint to prep everything .

You'll just roughly chop it for the peppers .

Obviously , remove the cores and then , for the chilies , feel free to deceive them .

The final thing you need is one clove of garlic .

Then move over to your food processor or blender .

Add all of the ingredients in there with half a teaspoon of salt , then start processing this until it has all broken down .

Don't forget to scrape down the sides of the container , and you should be left with something really liquidy and finely chopped like this .

What you need to do now is pour that mixture into a fine mesh sieve , and this will drain away the excess liquid , which makes the sauce a bit rummy .

We're also going to need this liquid later , and you want to drain off enough so that your sauce kind of clumps together .

But you don't want to make the sauce completely dry .

When you have something that looks like this , set all of the green liquid aside .

Then add the chopped vegetables back to the bowl .

Finally , you pour in 100 and 40 millilitres of freshly squeezed lemon juice and then mix it in well to combine .

What you'll be left with is a very finely chopped salsa , and it's gonna develop its flavour over the next hour .

It does have a tendency to oxidise to this dark colour , so make sure you keep it covered and in the fridge .

The other thing you'll prepare while waiting is a load of fried onions , and this method makes some perfect onions , which stay crispy for ages .

Start off with 750 grammes of onions , which need to be peeled , then sliced about one millimetre thick .

It's quite easy to do this if you have a very sharp knife .

But since I was using a food processor for the sauce , I chose to also use it to slice the onions that made quick work of my onions .

And in the end , I was left with a big pile like this .

These be placed in a cold frying pan or pot , then pour over about 750 millilitres of vegetable oil .

Turn the heat up to high and you'll slowly let the oil come to temperature .

At first there will be loads of onions , but they'll quickly release their water and wilt down to fill the pan .

Once you see the oil start to bubble , turn the heat to medium high and then begin stirring the wilted onions regularly .

You can see they're brown here and feel much less space , but they still have a lot of frying to do .

In total , it took about 25 minutes of frying to get them to the colour we need .

But while they were frying , I prepared a tray by placing a wire rack on top of an oven tray and then covering it with paper towels .

When the onions reach this golden colour , use a spider or slotted spoon to pull them out of the oil .

Give them a quick drain and place them onto the paper towels .

These will probably soak up loads of oil right away , and so place new towels on the rack and then transfer the onions .

Using a pair of forks , spread out the onions over the whole tray and try to spread them out into a single thin layer .

Once they're looking fairly good like this , Sprinkle over a pinch of salt and then set these aside to cool and drain for as long as possible .

And just to note , don't get rid of the oil .

It's going to have loads of great onion flavour , and it's great for cooking with just before the 2.5 hours of cooking are up , you'll prepare 750 grammes of potatoes by cutting them into large pieces .

These potatoes were medium in size , and so I cut them into thirds .

However , you should cut yours so they are quite large .

When the time is up , pull the meat out , and when you remove the lid , you'll be presented with something that looks like this .

Check the meat with a fork , and it should be about 90% of the weight to fall off the bone tender .

Add in the potatoes and then cover the pot once more and place it back into the oven this time for 45 minutes .

The last thing we need to do is prepare our rice , and there are two different kinds that will be going into the dish .

The first kind is a lightly spiced white rice and that begins by boiling a pot filled with loads of water and then adding in 2 to 3 bay leaves .

You'll also add three cloves , a half a teaspoon of peppercorns , one teaspoon of salt and one tablespoon of the oil you fried the onions in .

Now add in 2.5 cups of the smay rice , and this should be washed until the water runs clear .

We're basically going to cook this rice like you would cook pasta , set a timer for five minutes and then stir the pot every 10 seconds to make sure nothing sticks .

When the time is up , the rice grains should have absorbed loads of liquid and doubled in size .

Now we need to drain them .

Pour the rice into a colander , then put out the bay leaves in the cloves .

As you find them , you'll end up with a large pile of almost fully cooked rice like this , but you need to set it aside while we sort out the second kind of rice .

For this one , you need to wait until the potatoes are fully cooked and a fork easily goes through them .

When you're happy with them , place your pot in the sink , then place a strainer on top .

Pour all of the cooking liquid out of your pot and through the strainer , and we will use this to cook the rice .

In the end , I was left with about a litre of the stock .

The pot went onto the stove .

Then I added in 50 grammes of yoghurt .

This needs to be whisked into the stock until mostly dissolved .

Then you'll add in the green liquid , which is left over from making the Saha .

Turn the heat up to high , then pour in some water so you're left with plenty to boil the remaining rice in .

Once that comes to a boil , add in another 1.5 cups of basmati rice , which also should be washed until the water runs clear .

Set a timer for five minutes , and while that's boiling , prepare some saffron by placing it in a small bowl and pouring over a table of boiling water .

Give that a quick muddle , then let it sit and then fuse until the rice is finished again .

You'll pour out the rice into a colander or strainer , and this time it will emerge with a light brown colour from the stock , as well as a fragrant and delicious flavour .

With both types of rice done , you are now finally ready to assemble the dish back to our main pot and you'll start by pulling out all of the pieces of meat .

This is just a reordering exercise , and you want to remove them so that the potatoes sinks to the bottom , then place all of the meat back on top of the potatoes .

Next , you'll add on the brown rice that was cooked in the stock , making sure to get a thorough and fairly even coating across the whole dish .

You can then add on a layer of the fried onions , but we chose to keep some crispy and add them later .

You then need to add on the layer of white rice and again try to get this evenly spread over the entire dish .

Once that's all spread out , we can apply the saffron liquid , and you just want to pour it randomly over the entire thing .

In hindsight , I probably should have spent 200 K to celebrate our recent subscriber milestone , but this design was still kind of cool .

Place the lid back on the dish , and then this goes back into the oven to steam and finish cooking the rice .

We left it in there for an hour , and when it came out , the rice was looking perfectly steamed and fluffy .

The monks from the saffron give it a very cool appearance , and it's a fantastic looking dish to serve now .

The other way to serve .

This is by making a mountain of rice and potatoes on a plate , then covering that with the big chunks of meat .

You can then garnish it with some fried almonds , loads of the crispy onions and then some parsley for a lighter colour .

In the end , the dish will look absolutely fantastic , and it really is something you'd be proud to serve at the dinner table .

When you break into the meat , you can see just how juicy it is under the skin , and that succulent lamb just makes my mouth water .

The sauce did , unfortunately , Oxidise a little , but the flavour really cuts through the richness of this dish that is some super delicate lamb .

Mm , they're just incredible .

What a fantastic meal .

All the components just sink together , and this has got to be one of the best lamb and rice dishes out there .

If you're looking for more ways to cook some delicious lamb , check out this video over here