Tava (Cypriot baked lamb and potatoes with cumin and tomatoes)

this week's recipe comes from @catty who tweeted about how great it smelled while it was cooking last week. i may not have a fancy le creuset pot like she does, but i looovvvee lamb and never really get to make it for myself because chaddy's not a big fan.

i guess this recipe is a take on a take, since she already subbed carrots and sweet potatoes for regular potatoes. i figure heck, since she's already using sweet potatoes, i'mma use yams, since well, they're sweeter. (at least, according to the website i googled while at the grocery store, since i'm always confused which is which and the differences between them.) i'm afraid they might not hold up well or be just completely wrong on taste, but i'm sure it'll be fine. i think. maybe.

the recipe called for a kilo of lamb, which, if my memory serves me correctly, is about 2.2 lbs. the smallest leg of lamb they sold at the store was 2.9, but i trimmed a bit of the fat off and figure the bone had to add a teeny bit of weight, so i probably just came out a bit over.





i'm clearly not a butcher, so a lot of meat went to waste.



i'm not really an onion-cutter, either (despite the fact that they are my favorite vegetable), but there was plenty to go around, so i didn't feel bad about not really giving them the attention they deserve.



and i didn't notice this at the store, but haha, this yam looks like a...



teehee. ok, yes, i'm immature.

it was at this point i noticed that my white casserole dish wasn't gonna be big enough :\ (good thing i had a 13x9 baking dish or i'd have to make an emergency run to the store)



OH! i finally got a chance to discover cumin. i've smelled this smell in many places during my travels but never knew that was what it was. the smell totally brings me back. india, morocco, egypt, turkey maybe? in any case, it evokes memories of all those places.



doesn't this look absolutely wonderful? i've always groaned when tv chefs extol the wonderful vibrant colors of their dishes, but this really was impressive. maybe not so in the picture, but in real life, it really was eye-popping. (this was taken after all the ingredients come together but before mixing them.)



the recipe called for 4-5 tomatoes but since i'm not a big fan i just left it at 3. there were two choices at the store -- roma or hothouse. i got the hothouse since they were on the vine and thought they were prettier. (and on sale.) *shrug* who knows.



nom nom nom! just had to add the butter on top and into the oven it went. oh, i added pepper on top in addition to just the salt as the recipe directed because i don't think i added enough the first time around.



the recipe said to "dot the butter" but i wasn't sure what that meant so i just cut it up into little bits and placed them randomly on top.



it's in the oven now (ugh, why so looonnnnggg) and i can't really smell anything yet from the other side of the house, but i think that's because i have the window open and the neighbor is using some sort of adhesive (they're redoing their kitchen) so the vapors from that are kind of overpowering anything in here.

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ok i just went to tilt the dish from side to side and yum it's definitely starting to smell good! unfortunately still 2 hours to go :\

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two hours up, 45 minutes left. i can't believe my kitchen actually smells like this. i'm going to have to turn on some cypriot music! the sweet potatoes aren't holding up too well, but i'm pretty sure regular potatoes would be just as mushy after two hours.





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sh!t! i was wondering why, with 15 minutes left, there was so much liquid left in the pan (despite @catty's assurance that at the beginning of the 45 minutes, it'd still be quite liquidy). i realized i forgot to turn the heat up to 400. bah! i don't know what to do now. 15 minutes left and we're still very soupy in there!

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well, it came out liquidy, but easy enough to strain :P







well, since the recipe is already twice removed from authenticity, i've turned on some moroccan music courtesy last.fm and i'm armed with my trusty coke zero.

the meat is nice and soft -- it's very clear it's been slow-cooked -- but unfortunately so is the yam. you wouldn't know by looking (or maybe you would) but the yam is pretty much mush at this point. i guess that's a bad thing, though. the texture works well with the rice and the meat, and like i said, i'm a fan of yam, so really, you can't go wrong.

hmm. there's something a bit too familiar about the dish. I think next time I'm going to add more cumin or saffron or something to punch it up a bit. still, definitely good, although i have a sneaking suspicion i did something wrong so it could be better.