Herb Garden Plants

Archive for the ‘recipes’ Category

Lamb Kleftiko, roughly translated, means stolen meat or stolen lamb. It depends which of your Greek friends you ask. The legends say that a thief would sneak onto a remote Greek hillside and steal a lamb. He would cook the meat for many hours over coals in a hole sealed with mud to prevent steam escaping and alerting the shepherds.

Whatever the legends though, let me say that this is down and dirty soul food with a large comfort food factor thrown in. Only the best of friends ever get this as a special treat. Get it right and you’ll get accolades. Get it wrong and it will still taste great. Time is the secret ingredient; Rosemary is the essential ingredient.

One of the best modern methods is to put your lamb chunks and other ingredients into an oven double baster lined with enough tinfoil to wrap the ingredients in a pouch. Place another tinfoil sheet on top overlapping the lip of the bottom section and put the top cover in place, creating a good seal between top and bottom. (See illustration below)

Preparation time : 20 minutes

Cooking time: 3 to 4 hours or until meat falls off the bone.

Serves – bone-in: About 300 to 400 gm to a serving i.e. 2 kg’s will feed 5 to 7 people.

Serves – deboned: About 200 to 300 gm to a serving i.e. 2 kg’s will feed 7 to 10 people.

(I have cooked bone-in kleftiko for 6 farmers who flattened half a lamb. (8 kgs of meat) So overcater)

Ingredients:

Either 1 boned shoulder of lamb (about 2kg)

Or a bone-in lamb hindquarter cut into neat fist sized chunks by your butcher. See above for weight needed.

Or a bone-in lamb forequarter cut into neat fist sized chunks by your butcher. See above for weight needed.

150ml extra virgin olive oil

3 large cloves garlic, cut into slivers

4 tbsp roughly chopped rosemary

Juice of 1 large lemon

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C. (325 F)

2. Heat 50ml of the oil in a large, heavy frying pan over a medium heat. Add the lamb and brown on all sides. Remove from the pan and drain on a paper towel.

3. use a wooden skewer or similar to make holes in the lamb. Insert the garlic slivers into the holes.

Place meat inside tinfoil, add the herbs, lemon juice and the remaining olive oil and season. Wrap tightly in the tinfoil. Place overlapping foil over this and fit lid.

5. Place in oven and cook for 4 to 6 hours. Remove from the oven shortly before serving. Open foil and pierce bottom of foil cover to start draining.

6. Serve the chunky portions whole and spoon remaining juice over portions – they should almost fall apart at this stage. Serve with your veggies of choice.

Please let me know how you enjoyed this recipe.

A basil, tomato, garlic and mascarpone cheese sauce that is a truly simple, outstanding dish. The mascarpone cheese gives it the rich smoothness of a true classic. For me it is the Italian cuisine equivalent of the finest champagnes and epitomises all that is outstanding about simple Italian cooking No herb garden information guide would be complete without sharing this recipe.

PREP TIME 20 Min
COOK TIME 2 to 3 Hrs
READY IN 200 Min

Servings 4 to 6

Ingredients

• 500gm.(16 ounces) package uncooked spaghettini/spaghetti/fettucine
• 450gm.(14.5 ounces) can diced peeled tomatoes
• 2 fresh peeled tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons crushed garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 150gm. (5 ounces) mascarpone cheese
• 50gm. (2 ounces) tomato paste to intensify flavour.

(To peel tomato’s, place in jug and immerse by pouring boiling water over them, wait 2 minutes – remove from water over sink, leave to cool and the peel will slide off easily.)

Directions:
1. In a blender or food processor, blend the diced tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper until barely chunky.
2. Place mixture in heavy bottomed saucepan with 2/3 of the basil hand torn into small pieces and simmer gently until reduced to about 2/3 of original volume. Add the mascarpone cheese and the tomato paste and stir in gently, reducing heat to keep mixture warm while prepping the pasta. At this point add the rest of the basil to the mixture.
3. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente, if you like it like that – I personally prefer a softer pasta (15 minutes) and find it much more palatable.

Drain the pasta.

In a bowl, gently toss the cooked pasta and tomato mixture. You may grate parmesan cheese on top if you wish, but it is really not necessary.

Wine to drink – Sauvignon Blanc.