Lyndey Milan's delicous greek lamb with skordalia recipe is perfect with a glass of Malbec.
Ingredients
1.5 kg shoulder of lamb, preferably with shank bone attached
2 lemons, juiced then skins cut into quarters
½ cup (125ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon rigani (Greek oregano)
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoons sea salt flakes
6 sprigs thyme
Freshly ground pepper
240g silverbeet or spinach leaves, blanched, to serve
Skordalia (makes 2 cups/460g)
450g (2 medium) floury potatoes, e.g., washed potatoes, Coliban, peeled, diced
6 garlic cloves
Salt, to taste
½ cup (125ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon (20ml) lemon juice, to taste
Recipe by Lyndey Milan
Photography by John Pau Urizar
Styling by Michaela Le Compte
Food Prep by Wendy Taplin
Method
1. Preheat oven to 160°C (140°C fan-forced). Place lamb in baking-paper lined roasting dish. Combine lemon juice, oil, rigani and fennel. Rub mixture over lamb, sprinkle lamb with salt, thyme sprigs and season well with pepper. Put squeezed out lemon quarters around the lamb.
2. Cover lamb tightly with foil and roast for 2 hours. Remove foil and roast for another hour to be meltingly tender or up to another hour more if you want the meat to fall from the bone.
3. For the skordalia: Boil potatoes in saltedwater until soft about 10–15 minutes. Drop garlic cloves in for the last minute. Drain well, reserving the water. Place potatoes in medium bowl and beat with electric mixer, adding ¼ cup (60ml) reserved cooking water, until smooth. Drop dried garlic cloves with a bit of salt into running food processor and blend until it is a paste. Add half of the olive oil to the food processor and continue mixing. Add the garlic paste to the potato and mix. Beat in remaining oil gradually, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until oil is absorbed. Mix in lemon juice to taste.
4. To serve: remove lamb from oven and stand loosely covered with foil for 10 minutes. Use a carving fork and knife to slice or pull lamb from bone; serve with silverbeet or spinach and the skordalia.
Lyndey’s note: Skordalia can be made with either bread or potatoes. Traditionally, it would be almost completely made on extra virgin olive oil, but using some of the potato cooking water and reducing the oil makes it less rich. If preferred, use 150ml oil and just a tablespoon of cooking water.
Wine Match
Malbec