My Yiayia’s Tava Recipe
What is Tava? Tava is a Cypriot rice dish made with lamb (lamb breast, lamb chops, or lamb shoulder) chopped into small pieces with the bone in and a fair amount of fat. The fat melts and flavours the long-grain rice, and the dish is simply spiced with whole cumin, which infuses and gives the Tava its distinctive taste. Potatoes surround the bottom and sides of the dish to protect the rice from crisping and burning, and fresh tomatoes and butter are placed on top for the same reason. The final dish is dotted with small squares of butter and a scattering of whole cumin and it is baked. In essence, it is a Cypriot version of a Biryani or baked risotto.
My grandparents ate this dish in their mountaintop village in Cyprus every Sunday. Families would meander through the picturesque cobbled streets, passing the bakers, to drop off their Tava and make their way to church. Within 2–3 hours of the church service ending (our Orthodox Christian services are very long!), their cumin and lamb-infused rice dish would be ready to be collected on their way home and enjoyed. This was their Sunday ritual.
Tava can easily be adapted to serve your vegan and vegetarian friends and family. You can add chunks of courgettes and globe artichokes instead of the meat and bake as per the recipe. Halve the cooking time for a vegetable or chicken tava. I made Tava using kosher chicken (from Ocado),and it works very well. Use skin-on drumsticks or skin-on thighs, you need the fat from the skin to add flavour.
Tava is an economical family dish that feeds a crowd and can be enjoyed on its own with a Greek or green salad, in the summer, and in winter I usually serve my Tava with fasolaki.
I love the potatoes in tava, so much that I wrote a recipe for tava potatoes; next time you are looking for an interesting side to go with a BBQ or a delicious lamb roast, give them a try.
Tips:
Potatoes: Slice off a little of the base of the potatoes to make them stand easily. Keep the small pieces you have sliced off and add them to the base this will allow them to stand with ease. If at the end of the cooking time you check your potatoes by inserting a knife into the thickest part and they haven’t cooked through, add a little more water over the potatoes and cook the dish with the lid on for 5-10 minutes more. The potatoes will absorb the liquid beautifully, but they will be tested again.
Mixing: My uncle (Archie) gave me this tip, he often makes this Tava for his friends, Archie mixes the meat, rice, and seasoning in a large bowl and then adds it to the casserole dish. Combining everything in the large bowl first adds flavour to each mouthful and creates a wonderful rounded end result.
Let’s talk about the casserole dish:
Casserole Dish: Tava refers to the clay dish that the ingredients are cooked in, a terracotta-glazed round dish. We never had one, but my Yiayia used a heavy cast iron oval dish like this Le Creuset casserole dish. You can use a lidded Pyrex dish, a traditional clay Tava pot, or any ovenproof dish that you have. If your dish does not have a lid, use a double layer of thick foil that you have buttered generously and tightly seal the foil around the top of the dish. Make sure that no steam escapes, as this is needed to keep the dish moist and to cook the rice and potatoes.
Rice: I have made the dish with wholegrain rice and basmati rice; however, the best and most traditional is long-grain rice. Always rinse the rice well to remove the starch. Pop the measured rice into a sieve and run the rice, agitating it with a spoon, until the water runs clear. Read the instructions on the rice packet; your rice may need to be pre-soaked.
Water: The water provides moisture to the rice and potatoes to cook, and it allows the meat to release its juices to flavour the rice and’stew‘. Remember to keep the water an inch below the level of the rice when you are pouring it into the dish. If you submerge everything in water, you will have a soggy result, which is still tasty and edible but not as desirable or traditional.
This dish is forgiving; even if the rice overcooks and the dish is very moist, it is delicious, so it is a great recipe to try if you are a reluctant cook.
- 5 medium potatoes peeled and sliced vertically into 1cm slices
- 3 beef or large tomatoes sliced, 1½cm thick
- 2 cups of long-grain rice, rinsed well
- 1kg bone in lamb (shoulder, cut into 5cm cubes or 1 lamb breast cut into 10 cm dice), rinsed
- 5 heaped teaspoons of whole cumin plus 1 extra teaspoon kept aside
- 1 heaped tablespoon of tomato puree
- 1 chicken stock cube
- 2 cups of water and 2 more cups to top up
- salt and white pepper to taste
- +- 80g butter to grease your casserole dish, and the balance chopped
- Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.
- In a 29-cm 4.7-litre cast iron oval casserole dish, generously butter the whole dish, including the sides, base, and lid, with the butter reserving the balance for the top of the dish.
- Slice the base of the potato off so that it will stand proud around the edges of the dish, but allow the lid to close.
- Measure the potatoes so that they sit just underneath where the lid will be.
- Line the base and edges of the casserole dish with the potatoes; make sure that they are placed vertically. Add the trimmed potato pieces to the bottom of the dish.
- In a large, deep bowl, mix the rice, lamb, 5 tablespoons of the whole cumin, salt, and pepper and set this aside.
- Add the meat, rice, and cumin mixture gently to the centre of the dish, ensuring the potatoes are still standing proud around the edges of the dish.
- Using a spoon, gently level out the meat and rice mixture.
- Now lay the tomatoes over the top of the tava in a single layer.
- In a jug, mix the tomato paste, stock, and 2 of the 4 cups of water and stir well.
- Gently pour the water over the meat and rice.
- You do not want to submerge the meat; you need it to sit an inch below the top of the rice and the meat.
- You can use your spoon to move the rice to one side to see the water level, if needed,
- add the remaining 2 cups of water to your tomato paste cumin jug and pour until you reach just under an inch of the top of the rice.
- Sprinkle the last teaspoon of cumin over the top of the tomatoes.
- Dot the top of the tava generously with the remaining butter.
- Bake for 1½–2 hours, then check that the potatoes are cooked by inserting a knife.
- If required, cook for another 15 minutes with the lid on until the potatoes have cooked through.
The rice I use requires me to double the quantity of water; yours may be different, so follow the instructions on your rice packet.
