Any Greek chefs on the site - Kleftico and Afelia

[commis]

Hi
Thanks for the heads up phil, just been to lidl and picked one up then put it back down! Will grab one tomorrow, best way to eat them please, thinking rustic breads and crout and beer plus dill pickle?
Regards

[Peripatetic Phil]

Hi
Thanks for the heads up phil, just been to lidl and picked one up then put it back down! Will grab one tomorrow, best way to eat them please, thinking rustic breads and crout and beer plus dill pickle?
Regards

Rustic bread & beer certainly; never seen it served with dill pickle in Poland, but perhaps that varies depending on where you are.  Sauerkraut certainly : not something I enjoy myself, but definitely a traditional accompaniment.  And as I mentioned earlier, plenty of fresh grated horseradish and English mustard !

** Phil.

[JerryM]

all 4 off plates were clean and the whole lot eaten. the baked veg worked really well with the kleftico.

i'm well pleased with the result but feel i did not get the best out of both dishes. i have a gap for this type of dish - one stop cooking ie put it in the oven and serve straight from the pots.

with hindsight i put too much lemon juice in the kleftico and i now feel the marinating is ott and not needed.

thoughts going fwd:
1) re Axe's conclusion i will get european bay (only have asian which would not work) to try on next go
2) the red wine is key element. i found cooking it off a tad faffing and would like to try adding for say the last hr of cooking when i would leave lid off
3) i don't like the anemic look of onion and am drawn to caramelising it at the start
4) i'll try a different herb mix in the veg bake (used mint but oregano & marjoram would sit better with the kleftico)
5) i feel the kleftico red wine sauce could be improved a tad (might just be the bay or the too much lemon that i'd put in). not sure what's missing could even be the seasoning. some butter springs to mind but i feel that would be cheating.

this is a breakthrough for me and am well pleased albeit there is some fine tuning left. many thanks to 976bar - i'm essentially sorted.

baked veg recipe (nb i only used potato and whole carrot down to the picky eaters in the family):
1kg potato sliced
2 courgettes sliced
2 aubergine sliced
1 tin chopped toms
2 green peppers sliced (i would use frozen mixed)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp mint
0.25 tsp parsley
0.25 tsp salt
0.25 tsp black pepper
200ml water

all in pot and cover veg with sauce then lid on and in oven while the lamb cooks. lid off with say 1 hr togo to allow sauce to thicken. option to sprinkle with feta just before serving.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Just sent off a request to Athens for authentic recipes for kleftiko, afelia and tsatziki.
** Phil.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Stella Chrysochoou writes :

Hello Phil,
Here is my tzatziki:
1/2 kilo good strong yougurt FAGE  with 3-4 pieces of chopped garlic, two cucumbers in very small pieces, salt, 1/2 cup of good olive oil. You mix them all.

I suggest to write in English in the Web "kleftiko" and "afelia" and you will find many recipes. These are things that we do not prepare in the familly. You can find them in the tavernas specialised in roasted meat.

[Peripatetic Phil]

More memories of what I was taught about kleftiko some 40 years ago are starting to come back.  I now recall that I was taught that it was originally a Greek bandit dish.  For obvious reasons, the bandits could never risk the smoke of an open fire, so they developed a technique of wrapping their food in clay, then cooking it overnight over a very slow charcoal fire underground.  This doesn't cast any light on the seasoning, of course -- all I remember is that there are garlic & oregano -- but it does support the idea that the best way of replicating the effect today might be in a well-sealed clay oven.

** Phil.

[Malc.]

Jerry, i'm a little confused, are you saying you poured red wine in with the lamb? If so how much, enough to cover the lamb?

If I read you correctly you have cubed marinated lamb and raw onion in a pot that you have added lemon juice and seasoning too. You have then added red wine and slow cooked it in the oven. After which you have had to reduce the wine to create a jus. I hope you don't mind me saying, but this sounds more like the Afelia dish.

[Malc.]

Had another go at Kleftiko tonight with another great success. I tried the paper/foil method this time and aired on the side of Jerry's caution regarding the lemon juice and did the following:

Studded the lamb with garlic slices, 3 per shank. Salt, pepper, paprika, oregano, bay leaf and garlic butter on bottom, add shank and repeat for top, squeeze 1/4 of a lemon over the top . Pull paper and foil up to form a tight fitting bag. Place in oven at 140c for 4 hours.

I also made Confit Byaldi which is a serious test of your patience.

The results were stunning, the Lamb fell off the bone before I could get it out of the parcels and tasted so succulent I wanted more an more. The garlic butter infused with the herbs and spices and the juice from the lamb was out of of this world.The

The Byaldi, well what can I say, Thomas Kenner is truly a man of food, it was perfect and went very well with the lamb. I'm not sure I did it full justice and could only get butter nut squash not zephyr squash, but it was very good indeed. As I said though, the preparation and cooking of this dish is hard work, but well worth the effort.

[JerryM]

are you saying you poured red wine in with the lamb?

Axe,

i followed 976bar's recipe & method exactly other than the pre marinating and being over zealous with the lemon juice. the lamb is cooked without the red wine. the cooking liquid is poured off and wine added (i used 1 off large glass) and reduced until a nice sauce consistency. the recipe says to include the onion but most stayed with the lamb - hence did not take on any colour that should of happened per the recipe.

hence going fwd i'm wrestling with the white onion (that stays with the lamb) and the hassle of reducing to a sauce. i'm going to either blend or cut the onion much finer so that it is carried over when poured off for the reduction. the other thought is to add the red wine part way through. i think the late addition of the wine is important though as you want the taste in the sauce but not in the lamb.

i noted from yourself the inclusion of the garlic butter and think i might need to add it into 976bar's recipe for the sauce reduction.

i do feel as you are indicating the results from the various recipe derivatives are exceedingly good and our efforts really are refining what would come naturally to a proper chef (not knocking our abilities but i'm certainly in the learning seat).

as for the kleftico v afelia it matters not to me - the dish i'm cooking ie 976bar's is the one i was after remembering it from hols. probably breaking all rules but i'm going to use pork next and soon.

[Malc.]

Jerry,

Ah I see, I wasn't sure so had to check. I must not have read 976's recipe correctly. I think as far as jus is concerned I would probably look to create this independantly to the lamb, frying some shallot maybe a little garlic in plenty of butter, add in a bay leaf, lemon thyme, red wine and simmer. When lamb is done add juice, season, reduce and serve.

I used the garlic butter again as I still had the remains from last weeks efforts. I really love this dish and will be doing it again and again. My thoughts now turning to using a leg as opposed to shanks. This will help reduce the fat content as shanks have quite a bit of fat on them.

What I like about this cuisine is that the rules really can be broken. I am sure this dish will work equally well with pork. I certainly look forward to hearing how you get on with it.