Kavourma (Steamed/braised lamb)

Kavourma

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• ½ a shoulder or leg of American lamb

• 5 lbs. beef flank fat, ground or chopped into small cubes (if flank fat is not available, ask your local butcher for beef suet)

• 1 apple, quartered

• 1 quince, quartered

• water

• 1 or 2 tbsp. Salt

Directions:

1. Trim the shoulder or leg, removing unwanted skin and gristle.

2. Rub salt into the lamb and set aside.

3. In the meantime, place the fat in a separate stewpot on a medium flame and melt it down until it has reduced into small brown kernels (this will take 1-2 hours).

4. Place salted lamb in a large stewpot filled with water and boil. Continue boiling until meat falls off the bone, adding water as it reduces (this will take 2-3 hours).

5. Once the fat has sufficiently liquefied, remove the remaining kernels with a slotted spoon. Place kernels of fat in a large sieve with a bowl underneath to collect additional liquefied fat for the Kavourma stewpot. (You may either discard the unmelted bits of fat or use them for another purpose.)

6. Returning to the lamb, remove the remaining meat fragments from the bones. Break up lamb into smaller portions and spoon into the pot with liquified fat. Continue cooking for ½ hour.

7. Add quartered apple and quince to lamb mixture and cook for another ½ hour.

8. Remove pot of lamb, apple, quince and fat and transfer mixture to a crock pot with cover. Set aside to cool.

9. Once fat has hardened and turned white (preferably being left out overnight), refrigerate the lamb mixture in the crock pot.

10. As soon as the next day, you may scoop out portions of fat/meat/quince/apple together. Heat up the Kavourma until the fat has liquefied. Serve with bulghur pilaf, crusty bread (trchoug hats) and tahn.

11. Note: The longer the Kavourma sets after cooling, the tastier it becomes. The fat serves as insulation so that this dish will remain preserved throughout the winter months.

Kavourma may also be used in other preparations such as Jenjig or Choulama, which are main dishes found elsewhere in this cookbook.

Onnik Dinkjian’s recipe for Kavourma may be found on TheArmenianKitchen.com here: https://www.thearmeniankitchen.com/2010/03/onnik-dinkjians-kavourma.html