Syrian Shakriya

Step 1

Have all your ingredients weighed out and ready to go. Bring you yogurt to room temperature.

Step 2

If you have bought dried chickpeas for your shakriyah, remember to soak them overnight. Then prepare them by covering them with a few inches of water in a suitably large pot and boiling them for two hours or until they are tender but not so soft as to be falling apart.

Step 3

Also, rinse your rice before you start, giving it a good rub under running water to wash away all the excess starch.

Step 4

Cut the lamb into 1-2 inch cubes and season with salt and pepper.

Step 5

Heat up some oil in a pan and sear the meat until it browns on both sides.

Step 6

Add the chunks of onion and sweat them on a lower heat until they start to caramelize.

Step 7

Add the bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, cloves, and garlic and let them roast until they become aromatic and fill your kitchen with their smells.

Step 8

Add water to about halfway up the height of the meat chunks. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for about 2-2 ½ hours or until the lamb is tender.

Step 9

Keep skimming the top of the water using a spoon to leave a clear broth for the end, and keep an eye on the water level, in case you need to add some more.

Step 10

Once the lamb is ready, remove the cubes from the pot and keep them warm.

Step 11

Pour the cooking liquid through a sieve and discard all of the chunky bits.

Step 12

Set the strained broth aside.

Step 13

Heat up some butter and olive oil in a pan

Step 14

Add the vermicelli and stir well. Fry them until they are golden brown, which will make them nice and crispy.

Step 15

Add the rice and stir in well with the vermicelli, making sure to coat the rice well with the oil that’s in the pan

Step 16

Add the water to the rice and bring to the boil.

Step 17

Let it keep boiling until the liquid level comes down to that of the rice in the pot.

Step 18

Now turn the heat down to the lowest setting, cover and leave for 17 minutes – no peeking!

Step 19

Then turn the heat off and keep the lid on for another 15 minutes to let all the steam in the pot get absorbed by the rice.

Step 20

To roast the pine nuts, heat up a pan on a medium heat then add the nuts, monitoring them very carefully and keeping them moving.

Step 21

Once you see them start to turn golden, and you can smell that delicious roasting aroma, it’s time to take them off. Set them aside.

Step 22

In a large pot, whisk the yogurt with the egg, corn flour, salt and pepper, crushed garlic and 250ml of the strained cooking liquid. Add more liquid if you’d like your yogurt to be more soupy.

Step 23

Turn on the heat and, stirring constantly to prevent coagulation, cook the yoghurt over a low heat until it comes to a simmer.

Step 24

Cook it for another 2 minutes once it boils, then turn off the heat.

Step 25

Stir in the chickpeas.

Step 26

Place the lamb chunks into a deep bowl.

Step 27

Pour over with the hot yogurt soup.

Step 28

Sprinkle with pine nuts and dried mint.

Step 29

Finally, finish with some fresh black pepper.