Kleftiko

Name: Kleftiko (‘Robbers’ Lamb’)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Cypriot
Ingredients: black pepper; 3 bay leaves (optional); 150 ml (¼ pint) dry white wine or water; about 225 g (8 oz) plain flour; 1 lemon, quartered; 2 × 5 ml spoon (2 teaspoons) each of salt and dried oregano, mixed; 1 large onion, sliced thinly; 1–1.5 kg (2–3½ lb) lamb, veal or chicken joints

‘Robbers’ Lamb’

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Cooking of the Mediterranean

By Jane Grigson

Published 1991

About

Bands of robbers – or guerillas, depending on your point of view – lived in the mountains of Greece and Cyprus to harry the occupying Turks. They had a way of cooking meat and birds in a tightly-closed oven. Here is the tame indoor version of this klefti cooking.

Ingredients

1–1.5 kg (2–3½ lb) lamb, veal or chicken joints
1

Europe
Asia
Greece
Cyprus
Stew
Mediterranean

Method

Preheat the oven. Cut the meat into 4 convenient serving pieces and rub each over with a lemon quarter. Then turn them in the salt and oregano mixture. Choose a pot, earthenware for preference, with a small lid and put in the pieces, plus any salt or oregano that is left. Add pepper, o