Dimlama — Layered Steamed Stew

Name: Dimlama — Layered Steamed Stew
Total time: 1 h 45 min
Yield: 5
Cuisine: Uzbek
Ingredients: 600 g Lamb or beef, in large chunks; 3 Onions, thickly sliced; 4 Potatoes, in large chunks; 3 Carrots, in thick rounds; 0.5 head Cabbage, in wedges; 3 Tomatoes, sliced; 2 Bell peppers, in strips; 1 whole head Garlic; 1 tsp each Cumin, salt and black pepper; Fresh dill and coriander

Meat and a whole garden of vegetables layered into a sealed pot and left to steam in their own juices — no added water. The lid comes off to a rich, glossy one-pot stew where nothing has been fried and nothing has boiled away.

Source

Recette de Uzbek home kitchens · 🏺 Traditionnel · Everyday cooking of Uzbek households — the settled, oasis-city cuisine of Samarkand, Bukhara and the Fergana Valley, built around rice, lamb and the kazan.

Uzbek · traditional dish — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article documents dimlama as an Uzbek stew in which meat (lamb, veal or beef) and vegetables — potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, aubergine, tomatoes, peppers — are cut large, layered in a tightly sealed pot and simmered slowly in their own juices with garlic and herbs. Quantities and method here are this book's own.

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Kamola Kelin UZBEK FOOD _tillla

⏱ 105 min🍽 5 portions🔥 410 kcal🇺🇿 Ouzbékistan

HalalSans glutenSans produits laitiersSans fruits à coque

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Layer everything into a heavy pot in this order, seasoning between layers with cumin, salt, pepper and herbs: onions on the very bottom, then the meat, then potatoes, carrots, peppers, tomatoes and garlic, and finally the cabbage wedges laid over the top like a lid.
💡 Onions on the bottom are not a garnish layer — they release liquid first and stop the meat from catching before the vegetables give up their juices.
Do not add any water. Put the lid on tightly — if it does not seal well, lay a sheet of foil under it or a damp cloth over the rim to trap every bit of steam.
Cook on the lowest possible heat for 1 hour 20 minutes without lifting the lid. The vegetables collapse and release enough liquid to steam the whole pot; opening it lets the steam out and stalls the cooking.
Turn off the heat and rest for 10 minutes. To serve, either spoon it out in layers onto a platter or gently turn the whole pot out so the browned onions and meat end up on top. Scatter with the last of the herbs.

💡 Astuces

The rule that makes dimlama work is: no water, tight lid, low heat, don't peek. Break any of those and you get a boiled, watery pot instead of a steamed, concentrated one.
It is endlessly flexible — quince, aubergine or green beans all belong in season. The method is fixed; the vegetables are whatever the market has.