Turkish Lamb with Veg Guvec Recipe, please?

[Nachtvlinder]

This is my new go-to meal when I eat at a Turkish restaurant, but I can't seem to find the right recipe that delivers the same flavour as the restaurants. I've watched quite a few videos and yet, it's still not the same.

Here's what I do:

1. Brown off meat, then sautee onions til soft, then add in Pul Biber, hot tomato paste and normal tomato paste, cook out for a minute or two. Add in water and sprigs of thyme or oregano. Cook for up to one hour til meat is soft - last 20 minutes add in potato or peppers/aubergine.

Where am I going wrong?

What's not right about the flavour?

What cut of lamb are you using? We could cook a lot of lamb and mutton. A joint of lamb (shoulder/leg) slow cooked has the most flavour, but normally we would cook it for 4-5 hours. Are you using diced lamb or another small cut? I would go for longer cooking as I don't think for a stewing type meat that 1 hour is enough.

Beyond that, it's usually more seasoning/salt.

I've used lamb shoulder and I've done it on the stove for about 1-2hrs and in my Ninja 15-to-1 on pressure cook for about 1hr. Do the Turkish put ghee or butter in their dishes? I only use olive oil. I've also added in some lamb fat in it as well to make it more lamby flavoured.

I don't put tomato paste in mine, just wedges of tomato.
Just pieces of lamb brushed with olive oil bin the bottom, cover with the veg and garlic cloves, salt and pepper, ground cumin, more oil and some water. Seal it up and put it in the oven for 3 hours on medium. If it's too wet you can put it back in the oven for a bit with the lid off to reduce down.
I tend to use up vegetables but my recipe is based on one from a website called Worldfoodstory.co.uk Goof luck!

Could it maybe be that restaurants are using slightly older animals, so hogget or mutton? Is your source of meat as good as you can find?

I don't have a recipe for this but just wanted to recommend This recipe as I tried it recently and it uses similar ingredients and it was absolutely delicious. Maybe have a look and see if she has a recipe which looks similar to what you're looking for as I've had great success with all recipes I've tried of hers.

Thanks @TheLadyIsAVamp I'll give it go one day. Surprisingly, this one has milk in it - how strange... Have you used milk before in this dish?

Yes I have, I believe it acts as a tenderiser for the meat.