Mansaf-Style Lamb Shoulder in Fermented Yogurt Broth

Ingredients

• 2 lb Lamb Shoulder, bone-in, in large pieces
• 3 cups jameed liquid, or 2½ cups plain yogurt whisked with 1 egg white and 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1½ cups basmati rice
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 4 cardamom pods, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 bay leaves
• 4 tbsp ghee or butter, divided
• ⅓ cup toasted almonds and pine nuts
• 2 pieces flatbread or markook
• Salt and black pepper
• Handful parsley, chopped

Method

1. Cover the Lamb Shoulder with cold water, bring to a boil, and skim the foam carefully for 10 minutes. Add the onion, whole spices, and salt and simmer 70–80 minutes until the meat pulls from the bone. Strain and reserve 2 cups of broth.
2. Whisk the yogurt mixture in a separate pot and bring it up over medium heat while stirring constantly in one direction. It must never boil hard — if it does, it curdles into grains and there is no recovery.
3. Once it thickens slightly and looks glossy, add the reserved broth and the cooked Lamb Shoulder, and hold at a bare simmer 15 minutes, stirring often.
4. Cook the rice with the turmeric, 2 tbsp of the ghee, and salt in the usual way, then rest it 10 minutes and fluff.
5. Lay the flatbread across a large platter and ladle a little of the yogurt broth over to soften it. Mound the rice on top, arrange the Lamb Shoulder over that, and pour more broth across.
6. Toast the nuts in the remaining ghee, scatter them with the parsley, and serve the extra broth in a jug. Traditionally eaten with the right hand, standing around one platter.