Lamb Kleftiko
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 15 minutes, plus overnight marinating
Cooking time: 4 hours 15 minutes
- 1.6kg/3.5lb lamb shoulder, bone in or boneless
- 8 garlic cloves, peeled
- 40ml/1.4flozs extra virgin Greek olive oil
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 45ml/1.6flozs lemon juice
- 2-3 sprigs rosemary (8g/0.3 oz rosemary needles)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 4 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1kg/2.2lbs potatoes, cut into large chunks
- 1 yellow capsicum, deseeded and cut into large chunks
- 1 red capsicum/bell peppers, deseeded and cut into large chunks
- 1 red onion, peeled and cut into sixths
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 lemon, cut into sixths
- 1 head garlic, cut in half horizontally
- 1/4 cup/60ml/2flozs chicken or beef stock
- 6 bay leaves
- 75g/2.6ozs Greek feta, crumbled
- Fresh parsley, chopped
- Salt and pepper for seasoning
Step 1 - Starting the day before, take your knife and make shallow cuts into the lamb on the skin side. Sort of like a hesitant serial killer. Place the garlic, olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, rosemary, honey, oregano, salt and cinnamon into a food processor or in a mortar and pestle and grind to make a paste. Spread this all over the lamb and place in a ziplock bag or a container with a lid and allow to marinate overnight.
Step 2 - Preheat oven to 140C/284F fan forced. Cut up the vegetables and then take two very large sheets of foil and place in a cross pattern (vertical and horizontal) in a deep baking dish. Then repeat with two very large sheets of parchment on top of the foil. You don't want there to be any holes where the steam can escape as this will dry it out so bigger is better in this case. Layer the potatoes and season these with salt and pepper. Then add the capsicum, onion, tomatoes, lemon and garlic head halves. Pour the stock over this and then lay the lamb on top and add bay leaves around the lamb. Close up the parchment folding it over making sure that there are no gaps. Then use the foil to seal it all shut. Bake for 4 hours.
Step 3 - After 4 hours open up the foil and parchment and turn up the heat to 200C/392F and bake uncovered for 10 minutes or until browned. Cover with foil and rest for 10 minutes. Crumble and sprinkle the feta and parsley on top and serve.