Kleftiko from mutton in Cyprus

Step-by-step cooking

1. Step 1:

   

   Prepare the products for cooking kleftiko. Meat for this dish is traditionally taken only lamb or young lamb. Sometimes it is cooked with goat meat. You can take any spices, but oregano, basil and paprika will convey the flavor of Mediterranean cuisine best of all. You will also need a lot of foil.

2. Step 2:

   

   First of all squeeze the juice out of the lemon and add paprika to it. Mix well.

3. Step 3:

   

   Wash the meat well and dry it with paper towels. Spread the resulting mixture on the pieces of meat and leave to marinate for 2-3 hours. The acid contained in lemon juice will make the meat soft and tender.

4. Step 4:

   

   Peel the onion and cut into rings.

5. Step 5:

   

   Wash the potatoes well, peel and cut into wide slices.

6. Step 6:

   

   Take a fireproof baking dish. Cover it with 5-6 layers of foil. Put the foil overlap so that the juice does not leak out during baking. Put half of the potatoes on the bottom in one layer. Season it with salt, sprinkle with spices, pour olive oil over it.

7. Step 7:

   

   Lay onion rings on potatoes.

9. Step 8:

   

   Peel the garlic cloves, put it between the onions.

10. Step 9:

    

    Put the pickled meat on the onion. It is also salted and sprinkled with spices.

11. Step 10:

    

    Lay a layer of remaining potatoes on the meat. This layer also needs to be salted and seasoned.

12. Step 11:

    

    Wrap the dish well in foil, carefully bending all the edges.

13. Step 12:

    

    Put the dish in the oven, preheated to 270 ° C for one hour. Then reduce the temperature to 180 ° C and leave the meat to languish for 3-5 hours. Notice how high the temperature is at first. That is why carefully choose a baking dish. Mine could not stand it and split, I had to shift the dish to another form.

14. Step 13:

    

    Remove the finished dish from the oven. Carefully unwrap the foil and arrange it on plates, sprinkling with herbs.