Çoban kavurma — Turkey

Çoban kavurma, meaning roughly “shepherd’s sauté”, is a Turkish dish of diced lamb or mutton cooked with onion, tomato and green pepper in a single pan or pot. The name points to its association with shepherds, who could prepare it with a short ingredient list and minimal equipment while out with their flocks. It is found across Turkey, with a particular connection to rural, pastoral regions where sheep and goat herding are common, though it also appears on the menus of restaurants that specialize in kavurma-style sautéed and roasted meat dishes in cities as well. In both settings it is generally treated as a straightforward, hearty dish rather than a refined one. To prepare it, diced meat is fried in its own rendered fat or in a little butter or oil until browned on all sides, after which chopped onion is added and softened in the same fat. Tomato and green pepper follow, cooked down until soft, along with garlic and simple seasoning such as salt, black pepper and sometimes chili flakes. The pan is then covered and the meat left to cook gently until tender, with the vegetables breaking down into a light sauce around it. What sets çoban kavurma apart is this outdoor, pastoral association and the modest handful of ingredients it relies on, cooked together in one vessel rather than with separate components. Some cooks add diced potato to make it more filling, or finish it in a small clay pot, and the proportion of vegetables to meat and the choice of cooking fat shift from one region and household to another.