National Dishes of the World

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Bazeen
Photo: Libiya11, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

main dish

Bazeen

بازين (bazin)

A dome of dense barley dough set in a spicy tomato sauce with lamb, potatoes and eggs.

Eaten in: Libya

Prep
25 min
Cooking
1 h 40 min
Total
2 h 5 min
Servings
4

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About the dish

Bazeen is one of the most Libyan of dishes: barley flour is cooked with water, beaten into a smooth, firm mass and shaped into a dome in the middle of a large platter. A thick, hot tomato sauce with lamb, potatoes and hard-boiled eggs is poured around it. It is eaten together, with the right hand, by pulling off pieces of dough and dipping them in the sauce. It is served for family celebrations and gatherings, and in many homes on ordinary Fridays too.

Main ingredients

  • barley flour
  • lamb
  • tomato paste
  • potatoes
  • eggs
  • chilli

More: Wikipedia (en)

Recipe

Bazeen

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/bazeen

Ingredients

4 servings

4 servings

Method

  1. Soften the chopped onion in the olive oil, add the cubed lamb and brown it on all sides.

  2. Stir in the tomato paste, chilli, turmeric and cumin, fry for a minute, add 1.5 l water, season with salt and simmer covered for about an hour.

  3. Add the peeled, halved potatoes and cook until tender; boil the eggs separately until hard and peel them.

  4. Bring 1 l salted water to the boil, tip in the barley flour all at once without stirring and cook covered over low heat for 15 minutes.

  5. Beat the mixture with a wooden spoon, adding a little hot meat sauce at a time, until it is smooth and firm, then cook for another 10 minutes.

  6. Shape the dough into a dome in the middle of a platter with wet hands.

  7. Pour the sauce and meat around it, arrange the potatoes and eggs and serve at once.

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