Middle Eastern Fettah with Lamb

Recipe Description:

Fettah (also spelled fattah or fatta), is meat – often lamb or beef – with rice and toasted pita bread. Fettah is one of my favorite feast recipes, though I have to admit it’s a bit carb-heavy. The flavor of the meat and broth with the rice and toasted pita is not only filling but also sublimely flavorful. Even though I wouldn’t advocate repetitious consumption of this on a weekly basis, I recommend it as a party-pleaser and a great filling meal for feasts and large gatherings. I’m making this for Orthodox Easter this weekend!

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cook Time: 1 Hours and 30 Minutes

Servings: 4

Difficulty: Moderate

Recipe Ingredients:

3 meaty pastured and grass-fed lamb shanks (a little over 1 lb. each) – I prefer the taste of lamb, but this dish can also be made with cubes of beef.

1 cup brown rice

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 small loaves of dprouted wheat pita bread

1 teaspoon of organic butter or grass-fed ghee

3 tablespoons of organic whole yogurt, preferably homemade from grass fed milk

6-7 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon of vinegar (I used aged white wine vinegar, but as long as the flavor isn’t too strong, you may use any type)

a couple of bay leaves and cardamom seeds

Himalayan salt (or other real mineral salt) and ground black pepper, to taste

Recipe Instructions:

Soak the rice in enough water to cover, plus 1 tablespoon of whey, lemon juice or vinegar. Cover and let soak at least 8 hours.

Cook the lamb. Add 7 cups of water to a large pot on the stove. Add bay leaves, cardamom seeds, chopped onion, salt, and pepper. As soon as the water starts to boil, add the 3 lamb shanks, lower to medium heat, and cover pot. It takes the lamb 1-1.5 hours to fully cook. Use this time to prepare the other components.

Toast the pita bread. Cut up the 2 small loaves of pita bread into 1-inch pieces (you can use kitchen scissors or simply do it by hand) and place in a pyrex dish and drizzle with a bit of ghee. In a 250-degree oven, toast the pita bread for about 15-20 minutes, checking on it occasionally to make sure it is not burning. Remove and set aside.

Make the rice. Drain the soaking water off of the rice and rinse with filtered water. Once the lamb is at least halfway done, take out two cups of the lamb broth for making the rice. In a separate pot, add two cups of the broth to one cup of rice, stir, and turn heat to high. As soon as it starts to boil, immediately lower heat to low. Stir one or two times before turning off the heat after about 20 minutes.

Sauté the garlic and add vinegar. Peel and grind 6-7 cloves of garlic with a mortar and pestle or hand-held blender. Melt a teaspoon of butter (or you can use ghee) and sauté the crushed garlic for a few minutes until it starts to turn brown. Once brownish, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and stir on medium heat for about a minute.

Cut up lamb. Remove cooked lamb meat from heat, and with knife, remove meat from all sides of the bone, and cut up into small pieces. Discard bones.

Flavor broth. Add broth to garlic and vinegar mixture and boil for a few minutes.

Add yogurt. Add 3 tablespoons of yogurt to the mixture and use food processor to blend well.

Mix it all up. In a pyrex dish, mix together cooked rice, cut up lamb meat, and toasted pita bread.

Add broth. Pour over the mixture slowly, making sure to cover each part of the dish.

Bake. Bake on 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Author: midEATS

MidEATS was founded by real foodie and writer Heba Saleh and lawyer-mom Brenda Abdelall in August 2011, with the goal of presenting to the world the best Middle Eastern REAL food blog the internet has ever seen. We created this site to teach the world how to cook Middle Eastern food and to enjoy the process. We know that it isn’t just the food that makes Middle Eastern food so great: it’s the ingredients, history, and preparation that makes our food into a truly delicious meal. We will share with you the stories and traditions of Middle Eastern cuisine and culture. View all posts by midEATS

Recipe Description:

Recipe Ingredients:

Recipe Instructions:

Author: midEATS

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