Quzi

Quzi

In Iraqi Arabic: قوزي, sometimes spelled quzi or ghozi. In Hebrew it is written “קוזי” and also “גוזי”. This is Iraq’s dish for entertaining — the dish served at weddings, at Eid and at any occasion where hosts want to honor their guests.

In the original version it is a whole kid or lamb cooked for hours in steam or in a clay oven, and served on a mountain of seasoned rice, garnished with almonds, pine nuts and raisins. At home, people make a scaled-down version based on a lamb shoulder or leg, and that is the version here — the result is practically the same: meat falling off the bone over spice-soaked rice.

Prep time: 30 minutes · Cook time: 3.5-4 hours · Total: about 4.5 hours · Yield: 6 servings · Difficulty: medium

A dish for guests: why a whole piece of meat rather than chunks

Quzi belongs to a category that exists in almost every culture — the dish served whole. Presenting a whole animal or a large cut on a platter is a message of abundance and of respect for the guest, which is why the dish survived mainly at celebrations rather than on the everyday table.

There is also culinary logic here: a large cut on the bone cooks differently from small chunks. It loses less liquid relative to its mass, its collagen breaks down into gelatin over hours and gives body to the sauce, and the bone and marrow add a depth that has no substitute. These juices are poured over the rice, creating what makes quzi special: the rice isn’t just a base, it is what soaks up everything the meat released.

Nutritionally, this is also a dish that calls for proportion. A serving of quzi in an Iraqi restaurant contains 250-300 grams of lamb, close to double the amount usually considered a single serving of red meat — see red meat. The recipe here divides 1.2-1.5 kg of bone-in lamb among six diners, meaning about 150 grams of net meat per serving.

Ingredients (for 6 servings)

For the meat:

• 1.2-1.5 kg bone-in lamb shoulder or leg
• 2 onions, quartered
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon Iraqi baharat, 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon allspice, 1 cinnamon stick, 4 whole cardamom pods
• 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons oil, 1.5 liters water

For the rice:

• 3 cups basmati rice, rinsed and soaked for an hour
• 2 tablespoons oil or butter
• 1 teaspoon baharat, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 60 grams sliced almonds
• 3 tablespoons raisins
• Salt

Choosing ingredients and substitutes

Bone-in lamb shoulder or leg is available to order from the butcher; ask for a cut that fits your pot. You can use regular baharat instead of an Iraqi blend. If you have no blend at all, for each tablespoon of baharat mix a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of allspice, half a teaspoon of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of black pepper; this is a homemade substitute blend. The whole cardamom in the list means pods, not four individual seeds.

Method

1. Sear. Heat oil in a heavy pot and sear the lamb on all sides until deeply browned — 10-12 minutes. This step sets the color and flavor of the stock.
2. Cook long. Add the onion, garlic, whole and ground spices, salt and hot water until the meat is almost fully covered. Bring to a boil, skim off the foam, lower to minimal heat and cook covered for 3-3.5 hours, until the meat falls off the bone.
3. Strain the stock. Carefully remove the meat, strain the stock and measure 4 cups — the rice has been soaked, so it needs less liquid than dry rice. If there is a lot of fat on the surface of the stock, skim some off with a spoon.
4. Cook the rice in the stock. Heat oil in a pot, add the ground spices and the drained rice and fry for a minute. Pour in the hot stock, bring to a boil, lower the heat and steam covered for 18 minutes. Turn off the heat and let rest for 10 minutes.
5. Toast the garnishes. Fry the almonds in a tablespoon of oil until golden, add the raisins for half a minute and remove.
6. Finish the meat. Transfer the cut to a pan and put it in the oven at 220 degrees Celsius (425°F) for 10-15 minutes, until the outside is golden and caramelized.
7. Serve. A mound of rice on a platter, the meat in the middle, almonds and raisins on top, and on the side — salad, yogurt and amba.

Nutrition facts and calorie estimate

The recommended serving is one-sixth of the platter — about 150 grams of net meat with about 300 grams of rice.

This is the heaviest dish in the Iraqi category, and every component contributes: fatty lamb, rice that soaks up the stock, almonds, and butter or oil at two stages. In a restaurant, where the meat portion is larger, a serving easily reaches 1,100-1,200 calories.

What you can do: cook a day ahead, chill, and remove the layer of fat that sets on the stock before cooking the rice in it. This is the one step that cuts 100-150 calories per serving without touching the flavor — the fat that sets is saturated fat that rose to the top, while all the aromatic compounds stay in the stock.

On the positive side: 36 grams of protein, heme iron, zinc and vitamin B12 in significant amounts. It is a dish for entertaining, and as such it does its job — the problem only starts when it becomes routine.

Variations and tips

• Lighter: lean lamb leg instead of shoulder, less rice, and skimming the fat from the stock — together about 200-250 fewer calories per serving.
• In a pressure cooker: 60-75 minutes instead of 3.5 hours. The meat will get very tender, but the stock will be less concentrated.
• Brown rice: substitutes well for white here, because the stock is strong enough to penetrate it. Adds about 4 grams of fiber per serving.
• Leftovers: separate the meat from the rice before storing. Cooked rice needs to be cooled quickly — see reheated rice.

Summary

Quzi is a dish for entertaining in every sense: a whole cut of lamb cooked for hours, and rice that soaks up everything it released. About 900 calories per serving with 36 grams of protein — a dish for an occasion, which can be lightened by about 150 calories by skimming the fat from the stock. The more everyday Iraqi dish from the same family is tbit. More recipes in Iraqi cuisine.