Kurdish Lamb & Eggplant Stew With Sumac (Meftuna Bacanan)

I found this recipe online in *The Guardian* when I was looking for a recipe to try out the jar of sumac that I'd purchased on-line. Since I made it in a 5.5 quart cast-iron pot, I found it useful to cook the meat in two batches. It's a very interesting cooking technique and the results were super delicious!

• Ready In: 1 hr 45 mins
• Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 3  tablespoons  sumac (ground)
• 16  ounces boiling water (if using fresh tomatoes use less water about 10.5 ounces)
• 1  tablespoon butter
• 2 1⁄4 lbs lamb, cubed (better at room temperature)
• 2 1⁄2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 3  medium eggplants
• 3  medium red bell peppers (or 2 large)
• 1  lb sun-dried tomato (or fresh or canned tomatoes, I used some of both)
• 1  teaspoon  red chili pepper flakes
• 2  tablespoons flour
• 6  tablespoons butter, chilled and cut in cubes
• 4  garlic cloves, finely crushed (to serve)

Directions

1. Put the sumac in a pot and pour the boiling water over and set aside for at least 15-20 minutes, until the water turns to pink color.
2. Season the lamb with 1.5 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. In a heavy pan or a casserole dish, fry the butter and add the lamb cubes. On a high heat, brown them for about 10 minutes, stirring them around every now and then.
3. Meanwhile part peel the eggplants in lines diagonally and de-seed the peppers. Cut the eggplants and peppers into big chunks and roughly chop the sun-dried tomatoes. Put all the vegetables together in a bowl, sprinkle over the remaining salt, ground black pepper and chili flakes and mix them all and set aside.
4. Add the flour in to the pot with sumac juice in and whisk it well together, ensuring there are not any lumps.
5. When the lamb is brown, add in the vegetables and press them down in the pan. Pour over the sumac water (which should just cover the vegetables, add more if needed). Scatter around the chilled butter cubes and put the lid on. On a very low heat (the smallest ring is the best) let it simmer for 1 hour. Try not to lift the lid at all until it is cooked.
6. After an hour turn off the heat and let it rest for 15 minutes or so. Serve it with a quarter teaspoon of crushed garlic for each serve. The best is to stir the garlic in, which makes the eggplants melt in the dish!