Ouzi

Ouzi belongs to celebrations. Rice is cooked with minced lamb, peas, carrot and spice, and pine nuts, almonds and cashews fried in butter go over the top; the tray is set in the middle and shared. In Damascus and across the surrounding region this is what comes out for a wedding, an engagement, Ramadan or a holiday. It divides easily among many people, which is why it stayed in the food of ceremonies.

Where the name comes from

The name comes from the Ottoman Turkish word for lamb. In Arabic it is said ouzi, quzi or guzi, depending on the region. The original is a whole lamb stuffed with rice and mince and cooked slowly. The version that settled in Syria is smaller and more practical: the lamb is minced and folded into the rice, and the whole animal disappears from the picture.

What is on the plate

The rice is not plain. Peas and carrot are cooked into it, and the spicing leans on cinnamon and the local seven-spice mix. The fried nuts go on last and set the texture of the dish — soft rice, crisp nuts. It gets confused with shakriyeh, also on this site, but the two are different: shakriyeh keeps the meat in pieces and sits in a yoghurt sauce, while ouzi minces it into the rice.

Surar ouzi: the dough parcels

There is a second way to serve it. The same filling is spooned onto thin dough, gathered into a pouch, tied and baked; that version is called surar ouzi. The odd part is that the name belonged to the parcels first, and today the filling alone is also called ouzi. A parcel is one portion per guest, which solves the serving problem at a crowded table.

When it appears

It may not be on the daily menu. It comes out at weddings and engagements, at iftar in Ramadan and at holidays, and restaurants with a catering kitchen will cook it to order. The difference from mansaf, also on this site, shows up here too: mansaf is a southern dish eaten under a yoghurt sauce, and ouzi has no sauce at all.