Bazin (Libyan Barley Dough with Lamb Stew)

About This Recipe

Bazin is Libya's national dish and the cornerstone of Friday family lunches across the country, from Tripoli to Benghazi. A dense, unleavened dough of barley flour and salted water is kneaded with a wooden stick directly inside a boiling pot, then shaped into a smooth dome and placed in the center of a wide communal platter. Around it is ladled a deeply spiced sauce of lamb on the bone simmered with tomato, onion, potato, hot pepper, and a heroic amount of paprika and turmeric, with hard-boiled eggs nestled into the sauce at the end. Diners gather around the platter and eat with their right hand, pinching small pieces of bazin and dragging them through the sauce. The dough is meant to be denser than bread — it's a vehicle for the sauce, holding its own beside the rich red lamb.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 800 gbone-in lamb shoulder or leg, cut into 6 large chunks
• 2 largeyellow onions, finely chopped
• 5 tbsptomato paste
• 3 tbspsweet paprika
• 1 tbspground turmeric
• 1 tbspground cumin
• 1 tbsphot paprika or cayenne (to taste)
• 1dried red chili, whole
• 60 mlolive oil
• 4 mediumpotatoes, peeled and halved
• 6eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
• 2 tspfine salt, plus more to taste
• 1.2 Lwater, plus 800 ml for the dough
• 500 gbarley flour
• 1 tspfine salt, for the dough

Instructions

1. 1

   Brown the lamb

   Heat olive oil in a heavy pot over medium-high. Brown the lamb chunks on all sides, 8 minutes total. Remove and set aside.

2. 2

   Sweat the onions

   In the same pot, lower heat to medium and sweat the chopped onions for 10 minutes until soft and pale gold.

3. 3

   Build the spice base

   Add tomato paste, sweet paprika, turmeric, cumin, hot paprika, and the whole dried chili. Stir constantly for 2 minutes — the tomato and spices should darken and lose their raw smell.

   This 'tabkha' step is essential: under-cooked tomato paste tastes sharp; properly cooked it goes mahogany.

4. 4

   Simmer the lamb

   Return the lamb to the pot. Add 1.2 L water and 2 tsp salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to a low simmer, and cook covered for 60 minutes.

5. 5

   Add potatoes

   Slip in the halved potatoes and continue simmering uncovered for 25–30 more minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the sauce thick and red-orange. Taste for salt and heat.

6. 6

   Cook the dough

   Bring 800 ml salted water to a hard boil in a wide pot. Tip in all the barley flour at once and immediately start stirring with a sturdy wooden stick (the 'meghraf'). Stir vigorously 8–10 minutes until the dough is dense, smooth, and pulls cleanly from the sides.

   Don't be tentative — bazin dough requires strong, continuous stirring, like Italian polenta but stiffer.

7. 7

   Shape the dome

   Wet your hands with cold water. Tip the hot dough onto the center of a wide serving platter and shape it into a smooth, pointed dome with rapid wet-handed pats. Work fast — it stiffens as it cools.

8. 8

   Plate and serve

   Pour the lamb sauce around (not over) the dome. Arrange the lamb pieces, potatoes, and hard-boiled eggs around the base. Bring the platter to the table and let everyone tear pieces of bazin from the dome to dip into the sauce.

Variations

• •

  Bazin bil zeit: vegetarian version with no lamb, doubling the potatoes and adding chickpeas.

• •

  Bazin asfar (yellow): made with semolina instead of barley flour for a lighter, paler dome — a Tripolitanian variation.

• •

  Add a small piece of dried fish to the sauce for the Misurata-style version.

Storage

The sauce keeps refrigerated up to 3 days and improves overnight. The dough must be made fresh — it goes rock-hard within hours and cannot be revived.

Frequently Asked Questions