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You are here: Home / Archives for Meat / Lamb

Slow-cooked Spanish Lamb

September 9, 2025 by admin Leave a Comment

Here’s a variation of a dish that I’ve cooked on a charcoal BBQ a number of times. I call it Spanish Lamb and it consists of studding a lamb leg or shoulder with slivers of garlic clove, seasoning with salt and pepper, then smothering it with tomato paste and oregano (fresh or dried), and then cooking it.

[Apologies for the terrible iPhone photos. I need a new one!]

This time it was a slow-cooked fairly large shoulder of lamb. The fat on the lamb was pretty thick so I made slices all the way along.

The lamb was then prepared as above, then sprinked with 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika and 1 tsp Aleppo pepper flakes.

I added the following to the baking tray

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 leek, cut into chunks
6 brown shallots
1/2 head garlic, cut in half
1 red capsicum cut into 8 slices
3 strips orange peel
1 cup white wine
2 -3 cups water
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 large bay leaf
2 cloves

I cooked it at 120C for about 3 hours, then on 150C for about 1/2 hours. After the first hour I covered it with alfoil, then took that off towards the end. I turned the lamb part-way through so that the meat on top softened under the liquid, then turned it back again.

I removed some liquid towards the end to make a sauce. I blotted off some of the fat with paper towel, then cooked it down to reduced it. I strained it and later thickened it with Arrowroot powder.

I cranked up the oven to 200C to brown the top of the meat at the end.

Sides

White bean puree – cooked Cannellini beans blitzed with chicken stock, 2 cooked garlic cloves, 2 tbps butter
Scallopped potates baked with cream and butter
Brussels sprouts – olive oil and salt baked at 200C
Green Sicilian olives

It doesn’t look pretty on the plate but it tasted amazing.

 

 

Filed Under: Lamb, Meat, Mediterranean

Feta and Lamb Gozleme

July 18, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

Tonight I made gozleme for the first time, and it turned out really well. I hunted my cookbooks and online for recipes, and they were all varied. Some had yeast and some didn’t. Some were flour and oil. Some included yoghurt. In the end I based it on this recipe from Gourmet Traveller.

I made half the dough recipe for the two of us.

100g wholemeal flour
200g plain flour
130ml water
75ml plain yoghurt
1 tbsp vegetable oil

I mixed these in the bread machine for 10 minutes.

Read the recipe to see how to roll it out. I think I added too much oil in the rolling process, as it was a little greasy.

Once rolled and folded, the dough rested for about half an hour and that was fine, as it absorbed the oil more and softened.

For the filling I combined
shredded silverbeet leaves (raw)
spring onions
finely chopped roast lamb
minced garlic
home-made feta
mozarella
2 tsp Turkish spice mix from Herbie’s Spices
juice of 1/4 lemon
black pepper and sea salt

Assemble and cook as in the recipe.

It’s a bit of work to roll out the dough. I was really happy with the finished thickness and texture.

Filed Under: Bread, Lamb, Middle Eastern

Sous Vide Moroccan Lamb

December 17, 2017 by admin Leave a Comment

I cooked a half leg of lamb for 15 hours overnight in the souse vide water bath. I use an Anova Precision Cooker stick and a Trespade Vacuum Sealer.

The cooking time came from Dale Prentice’s excellent book “At Home with Souse Vide” (stunning photos by my friend Mike Emmett and his friend Bec at RedFishBlueFish Photo.

Dale is the talent behind Sous Vide Australia. I also bought my smoking gun from them.

The recipe was as follows:

3 tbsp Moroccan spice powder. (For once I used some from a jar.)
1 x 5 cm knob of fresh ginger sliced thinly
3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
1 long red mild chilli, sliced and de-seeded
1/3cup white wine
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tbsp fig jam
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sea salt

In hindsight I wish I had added juice of 1/2 lemon. Next timeI would stud the meat with the garlic.

After cooking it overnight, I finished it off on the BabyQ gas Weber.

It tastes really good, although next time I’ll use a home-made spice mix to give it more kick.

I’m going to serve it cut up with warm pita bread and accompaniments.

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Filed Under: BBQ, Lamb, Meat, Middle Eastern

Mediterranean Lamb Shoulder

May 7, 2017 by admin Leave a Comment

Today I’m slow-roasting a shoulder of lamb.

The lamb was studded with garlic slivers, then seasoned with salt and pepper and covered with tomato paste.

I then sprinkled it with some smoked paprika, and added sliced lemon and cloves in the top.

Oregano all around. Plus onion, white wine and water. Part way through I’m adding some diced white anchovies to the top.

I cooked it covered loosely with foil for about 5 hours then cranked it up to 150 or so for a couple of hours. I took the foil off at a could of points so it could brown.

Before the last couple of hours I added 2 x 400 g cans of crushed tomatoes and some sicilian green olives.

I also made a celeriac and potato puree, baked beetroot and brussels sprouts sauted in bacon fat. Yep.

Here’s the end result. 

Dessert consisted of pears poached in red wine and spices, a crumb of salted candied pecans + toasted coconut + toasted crumbled blueberry muffin, a few blueberries, candied ginger, lemon & honey ice cream, chocolate-dipped orange rind, and the pear syrup.

Filed Under: Lamb, Meat

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THE COOK

I live and cook in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. The region is similar to the Mediterranean, with temperate climate, fertile hills, nearby ocean, wonderful local vegetables, fruit, wine and meat produced locally. Cooking has been a growing passion for me, about connecting culture, creativity, community and spirit. The small garden in our new home is currently being established with some native bush ‘tucker plants’ and a range of herbs. I’ve just bought a yuzu tree!

Photos taken on iPhone 4, 5 and X and a Canon 5D Mk III.

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