Tavë Elbasani

Ingredients

• Lamb — in pieces1 kg
• Rice200 g
• Thick yoghurt700 ml
• Eggs4
• Flour60 g
• Butter100 g
• Garlic5 clove
• Dried oregano1 tbsp
• 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

   Rub the lamb with salt, pepper, garlic and oregano and roast it at 190 °C for forty minutes.

   45 min

2. 2

   Parboil the rice for seven minutes and drain it.

   10 min

3. 3

   Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook it two minutes, to a nutty smell.

   5 min

4. 4

   Whisk the yoghurt with the eggs and salt until completely smooth and add the flour mixture.

   8 min

5. 5

   Spread the rice in an even layer in an earthenware dish and lay the meat and its juices on top.

   6 min

6. 6

   Pour the yoghurt mixture over so it covers everything by a finger's depth.

   3 min

7. 7

   Bake at 180 °C for fifty minutes, until the top browns and the middle still trembles slightly.

   52 min

About the dish

It differs from Albanian tavë kosi in the rice: a layer of it sits under the meat and takes up both the juices and part of the sauce. That makes the dish denser and more filling.

The sauce works on the same principle: yoghurt with eggs and flour, or it splits in the oven. The flour here is insurance rather than a thickener.

Use a shallow earthenware dish. In a deep one the middle will not set before the edges darken, and the sauce stays liquid under a crust.

Worth knowing

• — The rice goes in half-cooked. Raw, it will not soften in a thick sauce; fully cooked, it turns to porridge.
• — The yoghurt has to be full-fat. A low-fat one splits regardless of how much flour and egg go in.
• — Let it stand twenty minutes. Hot, it will not cut into portions — the sauce has not set.

Nutrition

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

Calories

680 kcal

Protein

44 g

Fat

38 g

Carbs

40 g

More from Kosovo

• Flia — A layered pie of thin batter, poured one layer at a time under a heated iron lid called a saç.