Bosanski lonac

Ingredients

• Beef — in large pieces600 g
• Lamb — in large pieces600 g
• Cabbage500 g
• Potatoes600 g
• Carrots4
• Tomatoes4
• Bell peppers3
• Onions3
• Parsley root2
• Garlic — whole head1
• Smoked pork fat150 g
• Dry white wine200 ml
• Bay leaves3
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Cut all the vegetables into large pieces; they have to survive four hours without collapsing.

   30 min

2. 2

   Line the bottom of the pot with the diced pork fat, put the meat on it and season.

   8 min

3. 3

   Layer on the onion, carrot, parsley root, potato, peppers, cabbage and tomato.

   10 min

4. 4

   Tuck in the whole head of garlic and the bay leaves, pour in the wine and add water to half the height of the pot.

   5 min

5. 5

   Cover and put it in a 150 °C oven for four hours. Do not open it and do not stir.

   245 min

6. 6

   Serve straight from the pot, digging to the bottom so every layer reaches the plate.

   6 min

About the dish

Nothing is browned and nothing is stirred. Everything goes in raw in layers, water is added and the pot goes into the oven — the dish cooks in its own steam and juices.

The layers follow an order: meat and fat at the bottom, dense vegetables in the middle, quick ones on top. Reverse it and you get mush below and raw carrot above.

The pot has to be tall and narrow. In a wide dish the liquid evaporates too early and the bottom layer catches.

Worth knowing

• — The water goes exactly to half the height. More and it becomes soup; less and the bottom burns before the top is hot.
• — Soak a clay pot in water for half an hour before cooking. It then will not crack in the heat and gives its moisture to the dish.
• — The lid stays down until the end. Every opening lets out steam, and steam is what cooks the upper layers.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

660 kcal

Protein

44 g

Fat

32 g

Carbs

42 g

More from Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Bosnian burek — A spiral of hand-stretched pastry with a meat filling. In Bosnia only the meat one is called burek.