Shuwa

Ingredients

• Leg of lamb3 kg
• Ground cumin3 tbsp
• Ground coriander2 tbsp
• Turmeric1 tbsp
• Ground red pepper1 tbsp
• Dried lime3
• Garlic10 clove
• Vinegar4 tbsp
• Vegetable oil100 ml
• Banana leaves or foil4
• Basmati rice — to serve700 g
• Saltto 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

   Grind the garlic, all the spices, the crushed dried limes, vinegar, oil and salt into a thick paste.

   15 min

2. 2

   Cut deep slashes to the bone and rub the paste inside them and all over the outside.

   20 min

3. 3

   Refrigerate overnight, twelve hours at least.

   10 min

4. 4

   Wrap the meat in banana leaves, then tightly in two layers of foil. No gap may remain.

   15 min

5. 5

   Set the parcel on a tray, pour a cup of water into the tray and bake at 130 °C for eight hours.

   485 min

6. 6

   Unwrap it, pour off the juices and cook the rice in them. Pull the meat into threads by hand.

   25 min

7. 7

   Serve the meat over the rice, from a shared platter, eaten by hand.

   6 min

About the dish

A real shuwa is buried in a coal pit for a day or more. In that time the meat falls into threads at a touch, and no quick method produces that.

The paste is rubbed into cuts down to the bone and left overnight. There is plenty of spice but almost no heat: cumin, coriander, turmeric and dried lime carry it.

The home version is the same paste, the same wrapping in banana leaf or foil, and eight hours at 130 °C. That is an acknowledged shortcut, and it is how Omani flats cook it.

Worth knowing

• — The dried lime supplies an acidity nothing else gives. Fresh lime evaporates in the first hour; dried lime works through all eight.
• — Do not check on it: every unwrapping lets out steam, and the steam is what does the work.
• — The juices that collect are the most valuable part. The rice is cooked in them, and without them the meat tastes flat.

Nutrition

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

Calories

780 kcal

Protein

52 g

Fat

36 g

Carbs

62 g

More from Oman

• Mishkak — Meat on skewers in a tamarind and spice marinade, grilled over coals at the roadside.