Yesterday Hubby and I attended the Rush Oscars, a very glamourous event, plus as we were VIP guests we received the complete star treatment. The awards were given out at the Piccadilly Theatre and then Rush had hired the whole of Tiger Tiger Haymarket for the after show celebrations. A perk of Hubby’s job, which, if you follow my blog is a job that my Hubby adores and our whole life seems to evolve around dotSomething or dotOther.
We decided that we needed to eat late afternoon, so we were prepared for the vast amounts of Champagne we were about to drink and fancied something resembling a roast dinner, but with a twist, easier to prepare and with far less washing up, this Greek lamb dish was just what we needed. The smell as it cooked was amazing, giving the house that lazy Sunday feeling.
Well we had an amazing evening, met some lovely people and got to bed in the early hours of the morning, so feeling a little jaded today, but hey, all in line of the duties of a good wife.
Buon appetito
Serves 4 – 6
1 – 1.5kg leg of lamb, cleaned & some of the fat trimmed off
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
12 cloves
12 whole black peppercorns
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
1 – 2 cups warm water
200g kritharaki pasta, I couldn’t get hold of this, so used Orzo instead
2 large tomatoes, chopped, or 400g tin chopped tomatoes, we used fresh
grated myzithra, kefalotiri, kefalograviera, to garnish,again I couldn’t get hold of any of this so used parmesan, it is optional, so don’t worry if you don’t have any cheese
chopped flat-leaf parsley to garnish, again this is optional, so feel free to leave it out
Preheat the oven to 180c
Cut six incisions in the lamb and fill each one with a clove of garlic, two cloves and two peppercorns. Rub the lamb all over with salt, pepper and oregano and drizzle with plenty of olive oil.
Place the lamb in a youvetsi (clay baking dish) and add 1 cup of warm water. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. You can use any large casserole dish, we used our large Ikea saucepan, it worked just as well.
About 10 minutes before the end of this cooking time, place the kritharaki/orzo in a pan of salted boiling water and cook for 8 minutes or until almost cooked. Drain.
Remove the lamb from the oven and place the kritharaki/orzo around it. Spoon the tomato over the kritharaki/orzo and season with salt and pepper. Return to the oven and bake, uncovered for a further 30 minutes until the lamb is cooked and coming off the bone. Check the water level occasionally and add more water when the first cup has evaporated. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 15 minutes before serving.
To serve, sprinkle some grated cheese of your choice over the kritharaki and a little on the lamb, followed by the parsley if you are using it.
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