Jono & Jules do food & wine

This dish takes hours and it’s kind of hard to know if it’s all going to plan. We kept the faith and had delicious fluffy rice with tender lamb and carrots and a delicious crust on the buttom. Serve with some Greek yoghurt and pickles.

Wine Suggestion: This works well with an earthier red, either lighter and gentle, or an older richer style with a few years in the bottle. If you can fine Domaine Bargylus from Syria then you are in for a treat. The current vintage we have is 2014 (in 2022) and has beautiful rich core with layers of tertiary, warm spices.

Lamb, carrot & cumin rice – serves 6

• vegetable oil for frying
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 700g lamb neck fillet, sliced 1cm thick
• 2 tbsp cumin seeds
• 3 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 3 large carrots, peeled and cut into batons
• 500g basmati rice

Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat and pour in enough oil to cover the base. Sauté the onion until starting to brown at the edges. Stir in the sliced lamb, then add the cumin seeds and other dried spices. Stir to coat the meat in the mixture. Pour in enough boiling water to just cover the meat, then cover with a lid, reduce the heat to low and cook for 2 hours. Remove the lid and cook for another 30 minutes or until cooking. You will need to stir occasionally and add a little more water if needed to stop the meat sticking. Remove from the heat, stir in the carrots and set aside.

Heat a large saucepan over a high heat, fill with boiling water and add lots of salt. Add the rice and parboil for 6 minutes. Empty the rice into a sieve and wash it with cold water until rinsed of starch and cold. Drain well and leave to stand for 10 minutes. Tip into a large bowl.

Rinse and dry the rice pan. Scrunch a large piece of baking paper into a ball, then open it out and use to line the sides and base of the clean pan. Drizzle in enough vegetable oil to generously coat the base of the pan and season the oil with salt.

Add the meat and carrot mixture to the rice, season generously with about 1 tbsp of sea salt flakes and black pepper, then fold together to combine. Gently pile the mixture into the lined pan in a mountain shape. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to to stab a series of holes that go right down to the base of the pan. Wrap the lid in a tea towel, then cover the pan and cook over the lowest possible temperature if using gas and medium-low for electric, for 45-60 minutes. If you have a diffuser for your gas hob you should use it and double the cooking time.

(Original recipe from Sirocco by Sabrina Ghayour, Mitchell Beazley, 2016.)