Lamb in the oven with potatoes

LAMB IN THE OVEN WITH POTATOES

(Recipe for 6 people)

Ingredients:

1 leg of lamb (about 1.5 kg)

Salt, pepper, oregano, savory

200 g. olive oil

3 kg potatoes

2 large lemons

Instructions

Buy the leg of the lamb from the previous day, to marinate.

Wash it well.

Put on the leg salt, pepper, oregano and savory.

Rub the leg with your hand and spread the herbs evenly all over it.

Put 1TB oil in your palm and grease the leg around.

If you like the smell of garlic, nail into the meat a few cloves of garlic.

When you invite people for dinner, avoid the garlic because its smell is very strong.

Put the meat in a baking pan with dimensions 31CH41CH7 cm.

Wrap the pan around with cling film and put it in the fridge.

Let the meat overnight in the refrigerator.

The next morning pour water into the pan until it covers the 2/3 of the meat.

Put the pan in the oven on the first rack from the bottom.

Bake at 250 degrees Celsius.

Cover the whole pan with a loose sheet of non stick baking paper, to protect the meat from burning.

Leave the pan covered for an hour.

After that time, uncover the pan and turn the meat upside down.

Peel the potatoes and wash them.

Cut them into pieces that have the size of a walnut.

Put those pieces in a bowl and pour some oil over them.

Stir them well so that all pieces get greased around with oil.

Put the potatoes in the pan with the meat.

Pour in the pan the remaining oil. Add salt, pepper, oregano and savory.

Cover the pan again with the loose non stick baking paper.

Bake for one more hour.

Uncover the pan to check the meat.

Nail a fork ladle into the meat, to see if it is soft.

If the meat is soft, leave the pan uncovered and continue baking until it gets color on top.

Remove the meat from the pan and put it on a serving platter. Cover the meat with a lid to keep it warm.

Evenly spread the potatoes in the pan.

Pour into the potatoes the lemon juice and stir gently.

Bake the potatoes for half an hour.
Taste the potatoes and, if necessary, add salt.

Bake the potatoes until they are soft and tender and have absorbed almost all their fluids. 

Place the meat back in the pan and bake for 5 more minutes.

Turn of the oven. 
Keep the food in the oven covered with the baking paper.

When you are going to serve the food on the plates, take the pan off the oven..

The lamb is tastier when it is hot.

   

Salad with legumes

SALAD WITH LEGUMES

Ingredients

130 g white beans  
130 g black-eyed beans
130 g lentils

130 g garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

130 g husked wheat
3 carrots

100 g black pitted olives, chopped

80 g olive oil

1/2 bunch of dill

350 g of pickles

1TB hot mustard

 

Instructions

Overnight scour the wheat and put it in a bowl with water to soak.

Put in a pot the white beans, the black-eyed beans and the chickpeas.

Pour plenty of water in the pot to soak these legumes.

Leave them all night in the water.

The next morning rinse them thoroughly.

Pour clean water into the pot with the legumes and put it on high heat to boil.

As soon as the water boils, reduce the heat to medium.

Boil the legumes until they become tender.

Put the wheat in another pot and boil it separately.

Put the lentils in a third pot and boil them.   

Lentils boil faster than all the others.

Drain the boiled lentils with a colander and put them in a salad bowl.

Pour into the salad bowl a little oil and mix well with a spoon.

Chop the pickles put them into the lentils and mix.

Clean the dill and wash it well. Chop finely the dill into the lentils.

Peel three carrots cut them in small pieces and put them in the salad.

Drain the boiled wheat and add it in the lentils.

When the beans and the chickpeas are soft and tender, drain them well with a colander.

Put them in the salad.

Add the chopped olives in the salad. 
Add the remaining olive oil.

Last add the mustard and mix all the ingredients well.

Taste the salad and if it needs salt add some.

Spaghetti with meat sauce ( Μακαronia me kima in Greek)

SPAGHETTI WITH MEAT SAUCE

(Recipe for 4 people)

Ingredients

Sauce

600 g. ground beef

2 large onions

5 cloves garlic

150 g. olive oil
1 bay leaf

2 seeds allspice
4 large ripe tomatoes (700g approx.)

Salt, pepper

Very little red chili pepper

Pasta 

Ingredients

500 g. spaghetti or linguini no 7

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt to taste

250 grams grated parmesan cheese.

Instructions

Sauce

Put over medium heat, a saucepan. Put in it oil, chopped onions and garlic and stir.

Let onions to sauté and stir them from time to time.

Add the mince meat, some salt and little red chili pepper.

Mix often the minced meat with a wooden spatula and break the lumps that form.

Cover the saucepan with its lid and decrease the heat more.

Let the minced meat produce all its fluids and boil slowly in them.

Mix often the minced meat and check its fluids.

Rinse tomatoes and mash them in the blender.

Once the fluids of the minced meat are reduced, pour into the saucepan the mashed tomatoes and stir.

Let the meat boil until it softens and absorbs most of its fluids.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and try the taste of the sauce.

Spaghetti

Put 4 l of water in a pot.

Place it over high heat.

Wait for the water to boil and put some salt in it.

Add the pasta and stir well to avoid sticking.  

Pasta takes about 8 minutes to boil.

The time required to cook each kind of pasta is written on its package.

Let the pasta to boil until it becomes as soft as you like it.

Put the pasta in the drainer and let it drain well.

Put the pasta back into the pot and add to it two tablespoons of olive oil and four tablespoons of the meat sauce.

Mix well so the sauce covers all the spaghetti.

Serving

Put the pasta in a deep dish.

In the center of spaghetti put as much meat sauce as you want..

Put over the sauce grated cheese.    

Burgers in the oven or on the barbeque

Burgers in the oven or on the barbeque

Ingredients

1 k. ground beef or 700 g. ground beef and 300 g. ground pork

3 large dried onions

4 cloves garlic

Salt, pepper, oregano, very little ground cumin

50 g. breadcrumbs

90 g. olive oil + 3 TB

1 medium potato

1 medium ripe tomato

Instructions  

Peel the onions and garlic.

Put them in the blender and chop.

Put some salt in the minced meat and knead well.

Put the chopped garlic and onions in the minced meat.

Knead the minced meat to mix it well with the onions.

Add the oil into the minced meat and knead again.

Add the ground pepper, oregano, and very little cumin into the meat and knead.

Peel the potato and pulp it in the blender.

Add it to the previous meat mixture and knead again.

Mash the tomatoes, add them in the meat mixture and knead again.

Add breadcrumbs in the meat mixture and knead all the ingredients together well.

Put the burgers in the fridge for at least two hours, so the flavors will mingle.

If you make the burgers the previous night, their taste improves.

Burgers in the oven

Put 3 TB Olive oil in a dish and dip your hands into it.

Get a piece of ground beef in the size of a tangerine from the above mixture.

Place it on your left palm and turn it until it takes the shape of a small ball.

Pres with your right palm the meat ball to take the shape of a burger.

Continue this way until you make all the burgers possible from the ground beef.

Smear every burger around with olive oil.

Slightly grease a baking tray and put the burgers on it side by side.

Bake in the second top rack of the oven at 180 C degrees for 25 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven. Turn the burgers upside down to cooke their other side.

Put the pan back into the oven and bake 10 more minutes..

When the burgers are cooked, their color gets darker.

As soon as they get ready remove them from the oven.

.

Barbeque

Use a grill that folds and has a handle.

Smear the grill with oil with a brush.

Arrange the burgers in the grill and close it.

Place the grill with burgers over hot coals.

The fire should not be too strong, because the patties burn outside but remain uncooked in the inside. 

When the burgers are cooked from one side, turn them to the other side.

Turn them often to avoid burning them.

When you have invited a lot of people you need many burgers very fast.

It is impossible to cook many burgers at once.

In this case it is better to half cook the burgers in the oven in advance.

So when the people arrive, the burgers need only two minutes on the barbeque to get ready.

Shortly before serving put them on the grill and place it on the barbeque.

This way you prepare many burgers quickly.