Mutancana Recipe
Mutancana is one of the rare dishes that has managed to preserve its existence from Ottoman cuisine until today. A very rich, satisfying and energising dish that combines lamb meat and dried fruits. In short, it is an ideal meal for someone who rushes from war to war. But unfortunately, it is not a dish that today's people, who spend most of the day sitting in an office, can eat frequently.
Mutancana is one of the recipes that I have wanted to share for years but never managed to do it. The main reason for this, I must admit, was that I thought I wouldn't like it. Normally, I like light sweet dishes like stuffing pilav or sweet and sour chicken meatlballs. But the ingredients of mutancana promise to surpass that slight sweetness at first glance. This promise had always kept me back from trying this dish.
In the last few months, even though I decided to put my prejudice aside and make the recipe and share it, I fell ill with the disease of not being able to have the ingredients on hand at the same time. I buy apricots, there is no plums. I'm buying plums, but it turns out that I made apricot biscottis until I bought the plums and the apricots are gone. I buy apricots, there is no meat. Last time I saw that everything was perfect but there were no almonds at home, so I decided to make the dish with flaked almonds instead of whole almonds, saying that this would not be a problem. After eating the meal, I realized that I had shelled almonds at home and that I could actually obtain almonds by peeling the almond shells, but it was too late. In summary, it was not easy to come up with this recipe.
So what was the result? Is Mutancana a recipe worth all this effort? Definitely yes. First of all, it is not as sweet a dish as it promises. This is probably due to the fact that I keep the amount of dried fruits and honey reasonable and use dried fruits without chopping them, but since this is the ideal flavor for me, there is nothing wrong with it in my opinion. If you want a sweeter dish, you can increase the amount of dried fruits and chop them.
There is one ingredient in the recipe that I had to give up; fresh thyme. Fresh thyme is not an ingredient I always keep on hand. I'm very sure that it would go well with lamb meat, but after bringing together all the ingredients, I didn't want to give up on making the dish just because there was no fresh thyme. If you have it, be sure to use it.
Enjoy your meal...
Mutancana Recipe with Video
Ingredients
- 500 g diced lamb meat,
- 7-8 shallots,
- 6 small size dried figs,
- 6 prunes,
- 6 dried apricots,
- 1 tablespoon of all purpose flour,
- 1/4 cup raisins,
- 1/4 cup of shelled almonds,
- 1 tablespoon of butter,
- 1 teaspoon of honey,
- 1 teaspoon sumac,
- Salt,
- 2.5 cups of boiling water.
Preparation
- Heat the butter in a pressure cooker, add the meat and cook until it changes colour,
- Add shallots and cook for a few more minutes,
- Add flour and mix well,
- Add water, stir, close the lid and cook until the meat cooks until soft,
- Meanwhile, take the dried fruits other than raisins into a bowl, add enough boiling water to cover them and keep them aside,
- After opening the lid of the pot, add the drained dried fruits, raisins, almonds, honey, sumac and salt and mix,
- Boil for a few more minutes and remove from heat.
Enjoy your meal...