Tava is a traditional recipe from Turkey. This is our special Boomplaats version with cumin potatoes and tomatoes.
This Tava recipe is so simple – you just need time to prepare the lamb and vegetables, then you can fling it in the oven, go for a coffee and come home to a ready meal.
You could even use lamb chops and leave them whole.
Our Boomplaats free-range, grass-fed organic meat would obviously be the best option!
It also doesn’t need much by way of accompaniments – perhaps a salad or vegetables. Serves 6.
Ingredients
2 red onions roughly chopped
1.2 kg potatoes cut into large chunks
1 kg lamb cut into chunks
4 t chopped flat leaf parsley (chervil)
3 heaped t cumin seeds
125 ml olive oil
125 ml water
4 or 5 ripe tomatoes cut into thick slices
50 g butter
Directions
Preheat oven to 180˚C.
Put onion, potato and lamb in a 5l casserole dish or deep baking dish.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the parsley, cumin and olive oil and mix through with your hands.
Put the tomato slices on top in a single layer and season lightly with salt.
Dot the butter over the top and pour about 125ml of water around the sides of the dish.
Cover with foil and bake for 2 hours, tilting the dish from side to side a couple of times and spooning some of the juices over the top (if you are not out for that coffee!)
Remove the foil. The lamb should be tender and potatoes soft.
Increase the temperature to 200˚C and cook for another 45 minutes until the lamb and potatoes are a little browned and the liquid has reduced.
Serve hot on white rice and enjoy!
PS.
If you decided to try out our Boomplaats Tava recipe, we’d love to hear how it came out or if you add any twists of your own. Take some pics and share with us on Facebook.