Omani recipe

How to make Shuwa

Name: Shuwa
Total time: 5 h
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Omani
Ingredients: 2 kg lamb shoulder or leg on the bone; 6 cloves of garlic; 3 tablespoons ground dried red chilli (use less for a milder dish); 1 tablespoon each ground cumin and ground coriander; 1 teaspoon each ground cardamom, cinnamon and black pepper, and ½ teaspoon ground cloves; 4 tablespoons white vinegar or lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons date syrup or honey; 3 tablespoons vegetable oil and 2 teaspoons salt; Banana leaves (from Asian shops) or baking paper, and foil; To serve: plain or spiced rice

شواء

All of Oman, above all the villages of the interior; made for Eid

Shuwa — Photo: لطيفة النوفلية, CC BY-SA 4.0

Oman's great festive dish: lamb, goat or camel rubbed with a paste of dried chillies, garlic, cumin, coriander and vinegar or date syrup, wrapped in palm or banana leaves and a sack, then lowered into a sand pit lined with hot coals and sealed. It cooks slowly for a day or even two, until the meat falls off the bone, and is served with rice.

Serves 6 5 h

Ingredients

2 kg lamb shoulder or leg on the bone
6 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons ground dried red chilli (use less for a milder dish)
1 tablespoon each ground cumin and ground coriander
1 teaspoon each ground cardamom, cinnamon and black pepper, and ½ teaspoon ground cloves
4 tablespoons white vinegar or lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons date syrup or honey
3 tablespoons vegetable oil and 2 teaspoons salt
Banana leaves (from Asian shops) or baking paper, and foil
To serve: plain or spiced rice

Method

Crush the garlic and mix it with all the spices, the vinegar, date syrup, oil and salt to make a thick paste.
Cut deep slits all over the lamb and rub the paste into them and over the surface. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight.
Heat the oven to 150 °C. Wrap the lamb tightly in banana leaves or baking paper, then in two layers of foil so no steam escapes.
Put it in a roasting tin and cook for 4 to 5 hours, until the meat pulls away from the bone with a spoon.
Unwrap it carefully (hot steam) and serve on a big platter of rice, with the juices spooned over.

Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.

On the first day of Eid al-Adha whole villages bring their meat bundles to the shared shuwa pit, and the bundles are dug up again a day or two later.