Albania - Tave Kosi

The Country

Albania is a small country on the Adriatic coast opposite of Italy, bordered by Greece and Montenegro. It's one of only a handful of majority-Muslim countries in Europe (Kosovo and Bosnia being the others), and is known for its beautiful scenery and a rich culture and history with heavy influences from the Ottoman Empire. Its also a nation where scarecrows made of teddy bears impaled on sticks are kept outside of buildings under construction to ward off the envy of neighbors, which isn't unsettling at all...no sir not at all....*backs slowly away*.

The cuisine is a lot like the culture, drawing heavy influences from the Ottoman Empire

The Dish

Tave Kosi, which is considered one of the national dishes of Albania, is a casserole-like dish consisting of seared cubes of lamb mixed with rice and seasoned with oregano (a LOT of oregano, its one of the dominant flavors in this dish), covered with a mix of yogurt and eggs, and baked until the yogurt/egg mix puffs up to a slightly souffle-like consistency and develops a bit of a crust. Its a warming, rich, comforting dish with slight similarities to Greek Moussaka.

For this post, I used a recipe from Saveur.com. I've also seen a good looking one from the BBC (but that commie metric system, amirite?), so that’s an option too. It takes a fair bit of time, but the actual techniques are fairly simple and it makes a lot, so you can eat it over several days.

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp. unsalted butter

• 1 tbsp. olive oil

• 2 lb. lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2" pieces

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• 1⁄3 cup flour

• 3 tbsp. long grain white rice

• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• 3 tbsp. finely chopped oregano

• 4 cups plain yogurt

• 1⁄8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

• 5 eggs

Instructions

Heat 3 tbsp. butter and the oil in a 6-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat. Season lamb with salt and pepper and toss with 1⁄4 cup flour. 

Working in batches, cook lamb, turning as needed, until browned, 10–12 minutes.

Add rice, garlic, and 1⁄2 cup water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, covered, until rice is just tender, about 18 minutes. Stir in oregano, salt, and pepper and transfer to a 9" x 13" baking dish; set aside.

Heat oven to 375°. Melt remaining butter in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk in remaining flour; cook until smooth, 2 minutes. Remove from heat; whisk in yogurt, nutmeg, eggs, salt, and pepper until smooth.

Pour yogurt sauce evenly over lamb mixture. Bake until golden and the lamb is tender, 45–60 minutes.

Review

This ends up being very rich and eggy, with a texture I'd compare to a Spanish Tortilla. The yogurt really comes through and gives it a nice tangy bite that contrasts really well with the strong meatiness of the lamb and the earthy herbal flavor of the oregano. Without the yogurt, I think it'd be too heavy and savory, but as-is it comes out nicely balanced. I'd give this dish a 4/5, and I'll definitely make it again.

One thing to note, while it does keep well, I discovered the hard way that when microwaved it tends to do its best impression of a hand grenade and results in a fair bit of cleanup. I'd recommend reheating leftovers in the oven, unless you're the type of masochist who enjoys cleaning lamb bits off the top of your microwave.

Going forward in this, I'm going to group countries by their rough regions and go through those and keep a bit of a theme going. The first group up is Central America, starting with chicken stew and beans and rice from Belize.