Lamb, potatoes, eggplant, and peppers seared together on a sadj — a convex iron disc set over coals — and brought to the table still sizzling on the same pan. It is the communal centerpiece of Azerbaijani mountain restaurants, halfway between a grill and a stir-fry.
Also known as: sac ici, saj kebab, sadj ichi, sac kavurma, saj grill
Ingredients
- 700 g boneless lamb shoulder, in 4 cm pieces
- 100 g lamb tail fat, diced (or 60 g butter)
- 2 waxy potatoes, in 1 cm rounds
- 1 eggplant, in thick half-moons
- 2 green peppers, in wide strips
- 2 tomatoes, halved
- 2 onions, in thick rings
- 1 tsp salt and black pepper
- sumac and lavash, to serve
How to make it
- 1
Set a wide cast-iron pan or wok (your stand-in sadj) over coals or a high flame and render the tail fat until it crackles.
- 2
Brown the lamb in the fat 6-8 minutes, then push it to the centre where the heat is strongest.
- 3
Ring the meat with potato rounds first, then eggplant, peppers and onions, finishing with tomatoes at the cool rim; season everything.
- 4
Cover loosely with foil and cook 25-30 minutes, turning the vegetables in the lamb fat as they colour.
- 5
Bring the whole pan to the table and eat straight off it with lavash and a shake of sumac.
Pro tip: A sadj is a heat gradient: quick-collapsing tomatoes live at the edge, never the middle, or they vanish before the potatoes soften.
