Opah!

Recently a friend turned me on to a Greek food blog, Kalofagos. “Kalofagos” is a Greek word meaning gourmet and the blog is hosted by a fellow named Peter Minakis who is a Canadian of Greek dissent living in Toronto. Donna mentioned the blog because I was telling her about the Pastitsio I’d made a couple of days before.

I’ve long been a huge fan of Greek food since enjoying my first taste of it by the harbor of Piraeus. At that time we began by ordering an appetizer of fried calamari and were brought a plate heaped with a mountain of golden rings that were so good we ordered another plate. Unfortunately I was only in Greece for a couple of days and so didn’t get a chance to eat a lot. But I’ve tried to make up for it over the past few years by purchasing a number of Greek cookbooks.

We began by ordering an appetizer of fried calamari and were brought a plate heaped with a mountain of golden rings on it that were so good we ordered another plate.

I logged onto Minakis’ blog and quickly spotted a recipe for Lamb Lemonata. It was love at first sight and I had to make it. So I stopped by my favorite butcher’s and picked up a lamb shank that turned out to be a mislabeled lamb shoulder. Never mind, braising is an equally good cooking method for either cut. I also don’t have access to lemon verbena or lemon thyme so I substituted lemon grass here’s the recipe:

Lamb Lemonata
Serves 4.

2 lamb shoulders or shanks
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups vermouth (or white wine)
1 cup chicken stock
juice of one lemon
1 stalk lemon grass
1 tsp. dried oregano (or 1 tbsp minced fresh oregano)
1 4″ stalk fresh rosemary

Heat oven to 300F.

Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Generously season lamb with salt and pepper then brown lamb on all sides. Remove lamb and deglaze pot with 1 cup of vermouth. Reduce liquid to 1/2 cup.

Add all remaining ingredients and return lamb to the pot. Bring just to a boil, then cover and place in the oven. Cook for 90 minutes to 2 hours until lamb is quite tender.

Serve with juices spooned over it.

Try this lamb with…
Couscous with Dried Fruit
Asparagus Parmesan
Applesauce Cookies

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | lamb | greek

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