The dish Iraqi families cook for weddings, Eid and anyone worth impressing: lamb cooked until it gives way under a spoon, piled onto rice scented with cardamom and cinnamon, finished with toasted nuts and raisins.
Put the lamb in a large pot with the halved onion, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, cloves, bay and peppercorns. Cover with cold water by about 5cm and bring slowly to a boil. Skim off the grey foam that rises in the first ten minutes and keep skimming until it stops — this is what makes the difference between a clean broth and a muddy one. Add the salt.
Turn the heat right down, cover, and leave it for 2½ to 3 hours. It is ready when a piece lifted on a spoon starts to collapse under its own weight. Lift the lamb out and set it aside. Strain the broth and keep it — you are about to cook the rice in it, and that is where the flavour comes from.
Rinse the basmati in cold water until the water runs clear, then leave it to soak for 20 minutes and drain. Skipping this gives you sticky rice instead of separate grains.
Heat 2 tbsp of the ghee in a wide pan and fry the diced onion gently until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Stir in the baharat, turmeric and ground cinnamon and let them cook for 30 seconds — just until you can smell them. Add the drained rice and turn it through the spiced butter until every grain is coated.
Pour in 900ml of the hot strained broth. Taste it first and adjust the salt now, because you cannot fix it later. Bring to a boil, cover tightly, drop the heat to its lowest setting and cook undisturbed for 12 minutes. Take it off the heat and leave it covered for another 10 — do not lift the lid.
While the rice rests, heat the remaining ghee in a frying pan and colour the lamb pieces on all sides until the edges catch and crisp. This step is not optional: boiled lamb tastes boiled, and the browning is what makes it taste roasted.
In the same pan, toast the almonds and pine nuts until golden — a minute or two, and they turn from pale to burnt faster than you expect. Add the raisins at the very end and let them swell in the residual heat.
Fork the rice through to loosen it and spread it over a large platter. Lay the lamb on top, scatter over the nuts and raisins, and finish with parsley. Serve with yoghurt and a sharp salad to cut through it.
Or let us cook it
We make this every day at 12–14 Station Parade, Willesden Green. Dine in, collect or delivery.
Call 07450 254441Lamb neck. It has enough fat and connective tissue to survive three hours of cooking and come out tender rather than dry. Shoulder works too. Leg is too lean — it will go stringy before it goes soft.
They are the same word, transliterated differently from Arabic. You will also see qoozi, qouzi and ghoozi. In the Gulf, ouzi often means a whole stuffed lamb wrapped in pastry; the Iraqi version is the one here — lamb over spiced rice with nuts.
Yes, and it is better for it. Cook the lamb and the broth a day ahead and refrigerate them separately. The fat sets on top of the broth and lifts off in one piece, which gives you a cleaner rice. Cook the rice fresh on the day.
PAPA Restaurant & Cafe · 12–14 Station Parade, Willesden Green, London NW2 4NN · 07450 254441