Bazin

Ingredients

Sauce (marqa)

• 600 glamb on the bone, cut into pieces
• 1large onion, finely chopped
• 3 tbsptomato paste
• 2 tbspolive oil
• 1 tbspbzaar (Libyan spice mix: turmeric, coriander, caraway, cinnamon, black pepper)
• 1 tbspdried chilli powder or filfil, to taste
• 1 tspturmeric
• 2potatoes, peeled and halved
• 150 gcooked chickpeas
• 1.2 litreswater
• 2 tspsalt

Dough

• 500 gbarley flour
• 150 gplain wheat flour
• 1 litrewater
• 1 tspsalt

To serve

• 4eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
• 1lemon, cut into wedges
• Green chillies and olives

Directions

1. Fry the onion in the olive oil in a deep pot over medium heat for 8 minutes, then add the lamb and brown on all sides for 6–8 minutes.
2. Stir in the tomato paste and fry it hard for 3–4 minutes until it darkens from red to brick and the oil separates; this removes the raw tinny taste.
3. Add the bzaar, turmeric and chilli, fry 30 seconds until fragrant, then pour in the water and add the salt. Simmer, part-covered, for 45 minutes.
4. Add the potatoes and chickpeas and cook 20 minutes more, until the potatoes are tender and the sauce has reduced to a thin, deep red gravy. Add the peeled boiled eggs to warm through.
5. Ladle about 800 ml of the hot sauce liquid into a separate wide pot and bring to a rolling boil. Mix the barley and wheat flours with the salt.
6. Tip the flour into the boiling liquid all at once, in a mound in the centre. Do not stir. Cover and let it steam over low heat for 10–12 minutes, until the flour is soaked through.
7. Now take a magraf, the flat wooden bazin stick, or a sturdy wooden spoon, and beat the dough against the side of the pot, folding and pressing, for 10–15 minutes over low heat. It is heavy work. The dough is ready when it is completely smooth, elastic, pulls away from the pot in one lump and has no dry flour pockets.
8. Wet a deep bowl, press the dough in, then turn it out onto a wide platter as a smooth, glossy dome. Smooth the surface with a wet spoon.
9. Pour the sauce around the base of the dome, not over it, and arrange the lamb, potatoes and halved eggs around the edge. Serve at once, communally, each person breaking a piece of bazin off the dome with the right hand and dipping it into the sauce.

Technique

• Bazin is defined by barley flour and by the beating. Under-beaten dough is grainy and falls apart in the sauce; properly beaten bazin is dense, faintly elastic and holds a torn edge.
• Using the sauce liquid rather than plain water to make the dough is what gives Libyan bazin its colour and its seasoning all the way through.
• The magraf is a real, specific tool with a broad paddle end. A heavy wooden spoon works but you will feel every minute of the fifteen.
• Bazin is eaten from a shared platter with the right hand, and Libyan households treat it as the definitive Friday and celebration dish.

Substitutions

• If barley flour is unavailable, use 400 g wholemeal wheat flour and 250 g barley flakes ground fine; the colour will be lighter and the flavour less earthy.
• A stand mixer with a dough hook can do part of the beating if you scrape it down constantly, though Libyan cooks would not recognise the method.

Variations

• Bazin bel hoot, made with fish instead of lamb, on the Tripolitanian coast.
• Aish, a plainer white-flour version served with buttermilk.
• Bazin abyad, the white, unspiced dough eaten with a butter-and-date sauce.

History

Barley dough is beaten in the pot with a wooden stick until dense, then domed on a shared platter; each eater takes the wedge before them.

Frequently asked questions

What is Bazin?

Bazin is a main from Libya: dense barley-dough dome with tomato-lamb sauce, potatoes and eggs, eaten communally. Barley dough is beaten in the pot with a wooden stick until dense, then domed on a shared platter; each eater takes the wedge before them.

How long does Bazin take to make?

Bazin takes 30 min of preparation and 1 hr 15 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4–6 servings. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Bazin?

Yes, within limits. If barley flour is unavailable, use 400 g wholemeal wheat flour and 250 g barley flakes ground fine; the colour will be lighter and the flavour less earthy. A stand mixer with a dough hook can do part of the beating if you scrape it down constantly, though Libyan cooks would not recognise the method.

What is the most important thing to get right in Bazin?

Tip the flour into the boiling liquid all at once, in a mound in the centre. Do not stir. Cover and let it steam over low heat for 10–12 minutes, until the flour is soaked through.