Tavas Recipe (Cypriot Clay-Pot Lamb and Rice)

Tavas takes its name from the vessel rather than from any single ingredient, tavas being the Cypriot word for the round, wide clay pot the dish is traditionally baked in. Lamb, a great quantity of onions, rice and a pairing of cumin and cinnamon are covered and left in a slow oven until the rice has done all the work of soaking up everything the lamb has given off.

It sits somewhere between a stew and a pilaf, and the clay pot matters more than it might seem. The thick unglazed walls hold and spread heat far more gently than metal, which is exactly what a two-and-a-half-hour unattended bake wants.

If you do not have a genuine clay tavas dish, a heavy enameled cast iron Dutch oven with a tight lid is the best substitute and will get you most of the way there.

Key preparation steps

1. Brown the lamb hard before it goes anywhere near the pot.
2. Layer with a large quantity of onion and the raw rice.
3. Season with cumin and cinnamon, and cover completely with liquid.
4. Cover tightly and bake low and slow until the rice has absorbed everything.

What is tavas?

Tavas (Ταβάς, said tah-VAHS) is meat baked slowly with vegetables and cumin in a lidded clay pot. In Cyprus you will usually see it written ttavas, with a double t for the harder Cypriot sound. The Cyprus Food Museum traces the word to the Turkish tava, meaning a pan or dish, and the pot gave its name to whatever was cooked in it.

The everyday Cypriot tavas, the one the Cyprus government's food guides describe as a classic Sunday dish, is lamb with potatoes, tomatoes, sliced onions and cumin seed. Lamb tavas is the most common, but goat, beef and pork tavas are all made, and the Cyprus Food Museum records a version with potatoes and meat that also adds cinnamon and bay leaf to the pot.

The older recipes are written for a wood-fired village oven, where the sealed pot sits for hours. The long, slow bake in this recipe follows the same idea in a home oven.

Tavas from Lefkara, with rice

The recipe on this page is the rice version, which Cypriots know as ttavas lefkaritikos, tavas from Lefkara. Lefkara is a hill village between Limassol and Larnaca, better known for its lace and silverwork, and its tavas layers raw rice in with the meat so the rice drinks up the juices as it bakes.

The Lefkara recipes recorded by the Cyprus Food Museum layer meat, rice, onions, tomatoes and potatoes in a thick clay pot with cumin, add enough water to cover and seal the pot for three to four hours. Cyprus Mail's version from the village uses a mix of pork and lamb with cumin and cinnamon. This recipe keeps the lamb, the rice, the onions and both spices, and leaves out the tomato and potato for a richer, drier finish.

Classic tavas, Lefkara tavas and this one

If you want the potato version, swap the rice for about 2 lb (900 g) of potatoes cut into thick slices, add 4 grated or chopped ripe tomatoes over the top layer, and use a little less stock, since potatoes do not absorb liquid the way rice does.

Why so many onions

Tavas uses close to the same weight of onion as meat, and this is not incidental. The onions break down almost completely over the long bake, sweetening and thickening the liquid that the rice will go on to absorb, in much the same role they play in a Greek stifado.

Slice them, do not dice them, into fairly thick half-moons, since they need to survive two and a half hours of gentle baking without disappearing entirely.

Cumin and cinnamon together

This pairing, with cumin leading and cinnamon as a warm undertone, is the signature of tavas and marks it out clearly from mainland Greek lamb dishes, which lean on oregano and lemon instead. It reflects Cyprus's position at the crossing point of Greek, Middle Eastern and Anatolian cooking.

Use whole cumin seed, lightly crushed, rather than ground cumin from a jar if you can, for a fresher, rounder flavor. A cinnamon stick left whole in the pot and removed before serving is gentler than ground cinnamon and less likely to overpower.

Getting the rice right

The rice goes in raw, low in the pot, beneath or among the lamb and onions, so it can absorb the meat juices as everything bakes rather than sitting on top merely steaming. Medium grain rice holds its shape better here than long grain, which can turn gluey after two and a half hours in a covered pot.

The liquid quantity matters more than usual with this method. Too little and the rice at the bottom scorches before the lamb is tender, and too much leaves you with a loose, wet dish rather than one where the rice has properly absorbed everything. Cover the whole contents with stock or water by about half an inch (1 cm) and trust the covered, slow bake to do the rest.

Cooking tavas in the pot

A clay tavas pot is unglazed or only partly glazed, with a lid that sits snugly. Cover it with its own lid or with foil, pressed down well, so no steam escapes during the long bake.

Clay cracks with sudden changes in temperature, so put the filled pot into a cold oven and let them heat up together, and never set a hot pot down on a cold, wet surface. An unglazed pot is usually soaked in water for 15 to 30 minutes before its first use. Follow the maker's instructions if your pot came with any.

A heavy Dutch oven does the same job without the care. It browns the bottom layer a little more, which some people prefer.

What to serve with tavas

Tavas is a whole meal in one pot, so it needs little beside it. A sharp village salad, plain yogurt or talattouri, and bread are the usual partners. For more Sunday dishes from the island, see our Cypriot recipes, including kleftiko, which is lamb slow-cooked in a sealed oven in much the same way.

What matters in this dish