On May 5, Orthodox Christians will celebrate Orthodox Easter – and for many Greeks, that celebration equals throwing a lamb on a spit.
“[In Greece], lamb was mainly eaten during times of celebration, as it is expensive and only usually for special occasions,” Nicole Konstandakopoulos, the owner of Melbourne institution Stalactites, tells Broadsheet. “Orthodox Easter Sunday is a time of celebration and is held in spring in Greece, which is why spring lamb is the obvious choice.
“A favourite way to cook lamb is by putting a full marinated lamb on the spit. Depending on each family’s tradition, sometimes the belly of the lamb is stuffed with lemony herbed potatoes and sewn up again, so they slowly cook inside and take on the flavour of the lamb.”
Konstandakopoulos’s family has run Stalactites since her grandfather, Konstantinos Tsoutouras, opened it in 1978, and it’s since become a stalwart – as famous for the glorious plaster stalactites dripping from its ceiling (inspired by the caves found near Tsoutouras’s home village in Greece) as it is for its straightforward, well-executed Greek food. It’s also notoriously open until the wee hours, making it a beloved pitstop for moussaka and giros after a big night on the ouzo.
Here, Konstandakopoulos shares the recipe for the restaurant’s oven-roasted lamb, a riff on that Orthodox Easter lamb on a spit you’ll find across Greece because, as she says, “Most people do not have a spit, so we try to recreate the flavours in an oven”.
Konstandakopoulos says the key to this dish is being generous with the spices and not afraid to taste and add more spice or lemon as you like.
Stalactites’s oven-baked lamb and potatoes lemonato
Serves 6–8
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 3 hours
Ingredients
1 full rack lamb with skin, flap etc (or alternatively a leg with bone or lamb shoulder)
3 tbsp oregano
1–2 tbsp salt (to taste)
1½ tsp pepper
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1 tsp cumin
1½ tbsp mustard
500ml lemon juice
6 cloves of garlic cut in ½ or ⅓
½ chopped brown onion
½ cup olive oil
3–5 cups water
1 cup chicken stock
1–1.5kg desiree potatoes
Method
Lay the lamb rack in a large shallow baking tray. Sprinkle 1 tbsp oregano, ½ tbsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, ½ tbsp paprika and ½ tsp cumin over lamb, then add ½ of the mustard, and massage in. Flip the lamb over and repeat the above.
Pour 250ml lemon juice over lamb, making sure all lamb has lemon juice over it by massaging it into the lamb while pouring.
Slice slits in lamb and insert ½ cloves of garlic until used up.
Flip the lamb onto the side with the skin flap (this is the side to bake it on).
Sprinkle the chopped onion over the meat, then pour oil over the meat and fill the tray halfway with water.
Bake uncovered for 1 hour at 180°C.
Meanwhile, chop the potatoes into quarters. Put the potatoes in a bowl and add 1 tbsp oregano, ¼ tsp pepper, 1 tbsp salt, ½ tbsp paprika, ½ tsp cumin, ½ tbsp mustard, ½ cup lemon juice and stock. Mix well.
Add potatoes to the baking tray. Submerge the potatoes in the juices from the meat until they are at least half covered. Add more water if needed. Cover with foil and return to oven for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, remove foil then return to the oven for 1 hour.
