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Bazin (Libyan Barley Dough Dome with Lamb Tomato Sauce)

Name: Bazin (Libyan Barley Dough Dome with Lamb Tomato Sauce)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h 45 min
Total time: 2 h 15 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Libyan
Ingredients: 600 g Lamb; 1 Onion; 3 cloves Garlic; 3 tbsp Tomato paste; 3 Potatoes; 150 g Cooked chickpeas; 3 tbsp Olive oil; 1 L Water; Salt; 1 tsp Ground turmeric; 1 tsp Ground coriander; 0.5 tsp Ground caraway; 0.5 tsp Black pepper; 0.5 tsp Chilli powder; 0.25 tsp Ground cinnamon; 0.25 tsp Ground fenugreek; 400 g Barley flour; 100 g Plain flour; 700 ml Water; 1 tsp Salt; 4 Boiled eggs; 4 Green chillies; 1 Lemon

Libya's dish for a gathering: a stiff barley dough beaten smooth in boiling water, stood up as a dome, with a lamb and tomato sauce poured around it and eaten communally. The flour has to go into boiling water, and the sauce goes around the dome rather than over it.

Ingredients

6servings

Lamb sauce (marqa)
Lamb · Bone-in neck or leg; the bone makes the sauce600 g
Onion · Finely chopped1
Garlic · Minced3 cloves
Tomato paste · The backbone of the sauce3 tbsp
Potatoes · Halved or quartered, large pieces3
Cooked chickpeas · Tinned is fine150 g
Olive oil3 tbsp
Water1 L
Salt · Added after the meat is tender
Bzaar (Libyan spice blend)
Ground turmeric1 tsp
Ground coriander1 tsp
Ground caraway · Not the same spice as cumin; it defines bzaar0.5 tsp
Black pepper0.5 tsp
Chilli powder · To taste0.5 tsp
Ground cinnamon0.25 tsp
Ground fenugreek · Optional; bitter in quantity0.25 tsp
The dough (bazin)
Barley flour · Swap it for wheat and it is a different dish400 g
Plain flour · Helps it hold its shape; all-barley is also made100 g
Water · It must be boiling700 ml
Salt1 tsp
To finish
Boiled eggs · Arranged around the edge4
Green chillies · Whole4
Lemon · In wedges1

Steps

Brown the lamb in the olive oil over medium-high heat until coloured all over. Add the onion and garlic and fry 5 minutes more.
⏲ 12 min
Add the tomato paste and all of the bzaar spices and fry 2–3 minutes. Ground spices need a moment in hot fat to open up — see Blooming spices.
⏲ 3 min
Pour in the litre of water, cover, and simmer on low for 60–75 minutes, until the lamb comes away from the bone. Why this cannot be hurried is in Braising: collagen and time.
⏲ 70 min
Add the potatoes and chickpeas and simmer 20 minutes more. Once the potatoes are done, salt it now — seasoning after the liquid has reduced is what keeps it from going salty. See Salt and seasoning.
⏲ 20 min
Meanwhile boil the eggs for 10 minutes and peel them.
⏲ 10 min
Make the dough. Bring the 700ml of water and the salt to a rolling boil in a heavy pot. Mix the two flours, then tip in three-quarters of them into the boiling water all at once. Started in cold or warm water it goes lumpy and gluey.
⏲ 8 min
Turn the heat to low, cover, and leave it 10 minutes for the flour to cook in the steam. Do not stir yet.
⏲ 10 min
This is the part that takes muscle. With a sturdy wooden implement, beat and press the dough against the side of the pot for 5–10 minutes until it is completely smooth and elastic with no lumps at all, adding the remaining flour a little at a time as the texture requires.
⏲ 10 min
Press the dough into a wetted bowl to shape it and turn it out in the middle of a serving dish as a dome. Smooth the surface with a wet spoon.
⏲ 5 min
Pour the sauce around the dome — not over it. The top of the dome should stay exposed. Arrange the potatoes, eggs, whole chillies and lemon wedges around the edge.
⏲ 4 min
Put it in the middle and eat it together, breaking off pieces of the dome and dipping them in the sauce.
⏲ 2 min

Tips & Variations

Variations

This dough has nothing to do with gluten. Barley has almost none, so unlike a wheat dough it does not get stronger the more you work it. It comes together because hot water gelatinises the starch, and the hard beating is purely to get rid of lumps — the difference between the two is set out in Dough and gluten.
Wheat instead of barley: made with wheat flour alone it has its own name, aseeda. It is much paler and milder, and hard to call the same dish. Barley flour is what bazin is.
Which meat: lamb is standard, but camel, beef and fish versions all exist by region. Fish bazin cooks far faster — about 20 minutes.
Vegetarian: leave out the meat and be generous with chickpeas, potato and pumpkin. The spice blend stays, so the flavour structure survives.
Tunisian bazin: Tunisia has a dish of the same name with a different dough and different accompaniments. This is the Libyan one.
The North African and Middle Eastern neighbours: Moroccan couscous and tagine, Jordanian mansaf and Saudi kabsa are all built on the same one-dish-shared-by-everyone form. Bazin is the one where the grain arrives as a mass of dough rather than as separate grains.

Tips

The flour must go into boiling water. This is the single thing that matters. Started in cold or lukewarm water it forms lumps and turns to paste, and no amount of beating afterwards recovers it.
Leave it alone for the 10 minutes. The urge is to stir the moment the flour goes in, but giving it time to cook in the steam makes it far smoother.
Expect real effort. This is a dish that makes your wrist ache, which is why Libyan kitchens keep a dedicated wooden stick (a magraf) for it. Beat it too gently and you are left with a half-cooked lump.
Use a heavy pot. In a thin one the dough sticks to the base and scorches.
Keep the sauce loose. A mass of dough soaks up a lot of it. Aim for something brothy rather than a thick stew.
Do not pour the sauce over the dome. It is a convention, and there is a practical reason too: poured over the top, the dome goes soggy and collapses as people break pieces off.
Shape it hot. Cooled dough stiffens and will not form a smooth dome. Wetting your hands and the spoon stops it sticking.
Serve it straight away. It firms up as it sits. Leftovers are much better cut into pieces and warmed through in the sauce.

The basics behind this dish

Cooking basics →

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