“Tandır,” is a meat cooking technique which was used for centuries by the Seljuk Turks and their ancestors from central Asia. It is a special oven made from a pit in the ground.
“Kuzu tandır” is a popular lamb dish in Turkish cuisine. The traditional way to cook meat in a “tandır” is to hang the lamb whole from a suspended hook over the coals, then cover the top and leave it to cook for hours on end.
Today, there are many places and many famous restaurants in Turkey that still roast lamb in this traditional way.
Today “tandır” also refers to any meat roasted slowly in it’s own juices over coals, on the stove or in the oven.
Making “kuzu tandır” in the oven in a metal baking tray is a very simple and takes only minutes to prepare. The most time needed is for cooking. Tandır is served with Turkish rice or mashed potatoes in the traditional way.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours
Total Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes
Ingredients:
• 1 leg of lamb (drumstick and thigh portions)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• 4-5 bay leaves
• 2-3 fresh rosemary sprigs
• ½ cup hot water
How to prepare:
1. Buy a well cleaned leg of lamb and have it separated into three pieces at joints.
2. Preheat your oven to 285° F /140° C. Place the lamb in a shallow, metal oven roasting tray. In a bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice and spices. Pour the mixture over the lamb.
3. Rub the mixture all over the lamb, massaging it into the meat for several minutes. Add the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs. Place the tray in the oven uncovered.
4. Let the lamb cook slowly at this low temperate for about 1 ½ hours. You’ll see that the meat will release its fat and juices, then reabsorb them as it cooks. After the first 30 minutes, turn the pieces of lamb over. Repeat this two more times during the cooking process.
5. After an hour and a half and the meat has been turned three times, pour ½ cup of hot water over the meat, close the roasting pan completely with aluminum foil. Turn up the oven temperature to 365° F /185° C and leave the meat to roast for a least one hour more.
6. After about one hour, remove the pan from the oven and let it rest for five minutes. Remove the foil. The meat should be very tender and falling cleanly off the bones. Using two forks, remove all the meat from the bones and discard them. Also remove the bay leaves and rosemary.
7. Serve Turkish-style with rice or potato puree.
