Slow-cooked oven-baked lamb (kleftiko)

In keeping with the laid-back nature of cooking outdoors in a fourno, there are no specific quantities in this recipe, meaning you can very easily make it for as many or as few as you need.

• serves

  2

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  4 hours

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• lamb forequarter pieces
• potatoes, peeled and halved if large
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• rosemary leaves
• oregano leaves
• whole unpeeled garlic cloves
• lemon juice
• 250 ml (1 cup) water
• Greek salad, to serve

Work on one lamb forequarter and one large potato for each person and scatter the olive oil, herbs, garlic and juice as liberally as you like.

Instructions

To preheat a fourno (wood-fired oven), light it 2–3 hours before cooking, so the coals burn down to embers and the heat is radiant at about 350°C. If you like meat browned, make sure the oven is hotter at the start (see Note).

Place the lamb in a roasting pan. Push the potato in and around the meat. Season with the salt and pepper, then drizzle generously with the olive oil. Scatter over the herbs and garlic, then squeeze lemon juice over the meat and add the water. Cover and seal tightly with foil. Roast for 4 hours.

Serve with Greek salad.

Note

• While this dish is traditionally cooked in a wood-fired oven, you can also use a conventional oven preheated to 150°C. Increase the cooking time to 5 hours.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.