Home cooked, terrifically tender and tasty lamb pie. 


Earlier in the day I had plunked a plump 2.3 kilogram leg of Spring lamb into my large, cast-iron Le Creuset pot. I had decided to cook All Day Lamb, a dish that I raved about in my blog post on the 6th October after my friend Sarah had shared the recipe with me. 


Today I changed the flavourings slightly because I was after an aromatic Greek-style lamb, heady with oregano, cinnamon, sumac and mint that would become lip-smackingly soft and sticky and would be turned into a pie. So in went the usual two tins of crushed tomatoes along with two teaspoons of mixed Greek spices, the juice of a fresh lemon, one cup of dry white wine and two teaspoons of sea salt. I also added four large, whole carrots. On went the lid and into the oven for a leisurely six hours. Hence the name of tonight’s meal – Leisurely Lamb Pie. 

Once the lamb had cooked to the point when just a gentle prod with the fork caused the meat to fall apart, I removed the pot from the oven, picked out the bones and then shredded the meat. This was tossed through the rich sauce sitting at the bottom of the pot, along with the diced carrots. The mixture was then divided between two 23 cm pie dishes and topped with a lattice pattern of Careme shortcrust pastry. Back into the oven, this time for 20 minutes at 180 degrees conventional setting. 

Meanwhile, I steamed bunches of broccolini with butter and lemon juice and also made a fluffy batch of Saffron Citrus Pilaf, as per my recipe on the 3rd July. My Leisurely Lamb Pie was a hit with all of the children and I had just enough portions left over to pack into containers for school lunches tomorrow.