Mechouia recipe

A whole young lamb rubbed with spiced butter and roasted for hours beside wood embers, then torn apart by hand.

5 hours and 45 minutesmedium8 ingredients

Ingredients

• 3000 g lamb leg
• 150 g ghee
• 6 clove garlic
• 2 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp sweet paprika
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp salt
• 250 ml water

How to make Mechouia

1. The real mechoui is a whole lamb of about 15 kg, gutted, sewn shut and turned on a spit beside a bed of embers for four to six hours; that fire pit cannot be reproduced in a home kitchen, so this version roasts a 3 kg leg in the oven and says so plainly.
2. Crush 6 garlic cloves with 2 tbsp of cumin, 1 tbsp of paprika, 2 tbsp of black pepper and 2 tbsp of salt, then work the paste into 150 g of soft ghee.
3. Pierce the 3 kg leg of lamb all over and rub the spiced butter into the meat and deep into the cuts, right down to the bone.
4. Leave it at room temperature for 1 hour so the butter softens into the flesh.
5. Set the leg on a rack over a tray holding 250 ml of water and roast at 150 °C for 4 hours, basting with the pan juices every 30 minutes.
6. Raise the oven to 220 °C for the last 15 minutes to colour and crisp the skin.
7. Rest 15 minutes, then bring the joint out whole: the meat is pulled off with the fingers of the right hand and handed to the guests, without cutlery.
8. Serve with couscous, bread and a small bowl of cumin mixed with salt for dipping.

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