Lamb kleftiko

I'm still not entirely sure what is classed as a traditional lamb kleftiko and a recent trip to Athens left me just as confused. So I'm going with my take on one of the first ever lamb kleftiko I tried, basically a one-pot Greek lamb casserole with plenty of feta cheese!

Ingredients (serves 2):
450g diced lamb
1 red onion, cut into 8 wedges
1 clove of garlic, crushed
3 medium sized potatoes, peel and sliced into 1cm thick pieces
1 pack cherry tomatoes (approx 330g), left whole
1 green pepper, roughly chopped into large chunks
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp of English mustard
1/2 lamb stock cube dissolved into 100ml of boiling water
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
200g feta cheese
Handful of pitted black olives, halved, to serve

You will also need...
Tin foil
Baking paper

1. Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
2. Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes until they start to become soft.
3. Meanwhile, heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan over a high heat, add the lamb and brown all over.
4. Remove the lamb from the frying pan, leaving behind the fat and cook the onions on a medium heat for 5-6 minutes until soft.
5. Add the garlic, green pepper and cinnamon and fry for 2 minutes.
6. Add the lamb back to the frying pan along with the cooked potatoes, tomatoes, rosemary, bay leaves, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Mix well.
7. To prepare your dish to cook this in the oven, take a roasting tin (or ceramic roasting dish), lay two pieces of tin foil in a cross shape on top, making sure that there is plenty hanging over the edge. Do the same with two pieces of baking paper on top of the tin foil.
8. Spoon the ingredients from the frying pan into the centre of the baking paper cross, allowing the tin foil and baking paper to fall into the shape of the dish.
9. Mix the English mustard into your lamb stock until dissolved and pour all over the rest of your ingredients.
10. Bring the sides of the baking paper together over the top of your ingredients and scrunch together to secure. Do the same with the tin foil. This should seal your kleftiko ready for cooking in the oven.
11. Place your kleftiko in the oven and cook for two and a half hours until the lamb is tender.
12. After the lamb is cooked, fold back the baking paper and tin foil and crumble over the feta. Return to the oven unsealed for 30 minutes until the cheese starts to brown.
13. Serve with a scattering of the black olives. Enjoy!

Yelly-fi-felly-food-belly x

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