Djuvedj (Baked Lamb with Vegetables and Rice)

Pronounced "jew-vedge", this hails from the part of the world formerly known as Yugoslavia. This is home cooking at it's best- simple, nutritious and rich. The miracle of this dish is that I made a mistake, turned off the oven halfway through cooking, and came home three and a half hours later to perfection. My kids have activities every afternoon right now, and I don't get home until around 7. I will be making this dish as often as my family will eat it. 

I found this recipe in Elisabeth Luard's The Old World Kitchen: The Rich Tradition of European Peasant Cooking. It was published in 1987, so it's hardly the hot new thing, but it is a good thing. The directions were so simple I reread them again and again because I kept thinking that I had left something out. No- it's just that easy. And did I mention delicious?

My kids abhorred the eggplant, but my sympathy is limited. Your family, your call. This needs at least an hour and a half to bake. 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil (it's rich, not greasy)
2 sliced onions
3-4 cloves of sliced garlic
2 pounds of boneless lamb, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon hot paprika
salt and pepper
2 pounds of chopped mixed vegetables (bell pepper, zucchini, green beans, eggplant)
1/2 cup of rice
1/2 pound sliced fresh or canned tomatoes

Directions:

1. Heat up 1/4 cup of olive oil in a frying pan and add the onions and garlic. Add a little salt. Saute them until they are golden. 

Soak the rice in warm water. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Push the onions to the side, and add in the lamb. Let it fry for a minute before adding the spices, and some salt. 

Pour the mixture into an earthenware dish with a cover or a dutch oven.

Add the vegetables and salt them lightly. 

Drain the rice and spread it over the vegetables.

(The rice in the picture wasn't soaked, but some of it came out a little crunchy. If you forgot to soak the rice, just throw it on and forget about it.)

Add the tomatoes to the top. If you are using fresh but flavorless tomatoes, sprinkle a little sugar over them. Pour water in up to the level of the rice, and drizzle the last 1/4 cup of olive oil over it. 

The shape and size of your cooking vessel will  alter how much water you use, but this is home cooking, not rocket science, so don't worry about it too much. 

All of this BARELY fit into the dish I had, so I put a baking sheet underneath it in the oven so it wouldn't bubble over and make a huge mess. 

Put the djuvedj in the oven and bake it for an hour and a half. The recipe said to remove the lid during the last 20 minutes of cooking for the juices to cook down and concentrate, but my pot only just held it all and this wasn't necessary. 

I planned really badly for this, and not quite an hour into the cooking time, I had to leave. I turned everything off, left it in the oven, and came home three and a half hours later to a perfectly cooked hot meal. I think the ceramic pot had a lot to do with this because it retained the heat so well. 

This made 6 to 8 servings and only got better the next day. Serve it with wine and bread to soak up the juices. 

Options and Alterations:
You can leave out the meat and add feta cheese during the end of the cooking. You can switch out the vegetables for whatever is in season. You can substitute chicken for lamb. You can use 4 peeled, sliced potatoes instead of rice. You can also add some cumin to the spices. The original recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder, not the paprikas that I used.