Friday, 17 February 2012

create: slow cooked lamb with lemon and potatoes (kleftiko)

A recipe from my mum...she writes:

This is from one of my favourite cookbooks, Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes. I was visiting my son who was living in The Hague when we happened to see a TV program of the same name.  We were impressed so we jotted down a couple of his recipes.  Needless to say I bought the book. 

This new addition to our Greek family favourites
comes from Corfu.

I love this dish because it is so simple, using only a few core ingredients, it has a most delicious lemon flavour and the lamb just melts.

About 2 kg shoulder of lamb in chunks 
(supermarket has them chopped in pieces)
About 2kg waxy potatoes
(peeled and cut in half through the middle)
1 head of garlic
(outside papery skins removed, cut in half)
1 tablespoon dried oregano
3-6 bay leaves
2 tablespoons fresh oregano
(or marjoram)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
extra oil for drizzling
Juice of 2 large lemons
Salt/pepper


Preheat oven to 1900 C/gas mark 5.  Combine the meat, potatoes and garlic in a large ovenproof casserole dish.  Sprinkle with the dried and fresh herbs, olive oil, lemon juice, 100 ml water, 2 teaspoons of salt and plenty of black pepper.  Mix together well, then nestle the pieces of meat down in amount the potatoes.  Drizzle with a little more oil.  Cover the casserole tightly with foil and a well fitting lid and bake for 3 hours until meat is falling off the bone.  However, check after a couple of hours to make sure it doesn’t need more water.

Serve with a green salad and plenty of crusty bread.

It can also be cooked in a slow cooker overnight on low.  I have used lamb chops,  they don’t need as much cooking time. 

Yum - I think this is going in the slow cooker on Sunday!

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