Kleftiko

Ingredients

• Lamb shoulder — bone-in2 kg
• Potatoes1 kg
• Garlic10 clove
• Lemons2
• Dried oregano2 tbsp
• Cinnamon stick1
• Bay leaves3
• Olive oil100 ml
• Halloumi — optional200 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Cut deep slits into the lamb and push a sliver of garlic into each.

   15 min

2. 2

   Rub the meat with salt, pepper, oregano, olive oil and lemon juice.

   10 min

3. 3

   Leave the lamb to marinate in the fridge for at least four hours.

   15 min

4. 4

   Cut the potatoes into large wedges and lay them in the base of a clay dish.

   12 min

5. 5

   Set the meat on the potatoes and add the bay, cinnamon and lemon halves.

   8 min

6. 6

   Cover it and seal the join with a strip of dough or a double layer of foil.

   10 min

7. 7

   Bake at 160 °C for five hours without opening it and rest it twenty minutes.

   320 min

About the dish

The dish is sealed shut, with dough or foil. The name means "stolen": bandits cooked meat in closed pits so the smoke would not give them away.

No water goes in at all. The meat cooks in its own juices, and any liquid turns the baking into a watery braise.

Five hours at 160 degrees is not shortened. In three the lamb turns tender but does not begin falling from the bone, and that falling is what kleftiko is.

Worth knowing

• — Do not open the dish while it cooks. Every opening lets out steam, and steam is the medium the meat finishes in.
• — The potatoes go underneath. They take up the rendered fat and juices, which is exactly why they are never cooked separately.
• — Halloumi goes in half an hour before the end. Added at the start it melts and disappears into the juices without trace.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

780 kcal

Protein

52 g

Fat

48 g

Carbs

34 g

More from Cyprus

• Souvla — Large pieces of pork or lamb on a spit, turning slowly over coals for two hours.
• Grilled halloumi with watermelon — Cypriot cheese seared to a crust, with cold watermelon and mint. The island's summer plate.
• Koupepia — Cypriot vine leaves rolled with rice, mince and cinnamon, finished with lemon.