Eastern Mediterranean roast lamb

Another riff on the British Sunday roast, this Eastern Mediterranean roast lamb is served with autumnal veggies and spätzle dressed in the fresh flavours of spinach, feta and parsley. It's a nod to the food culture that Turkish immigrants brought with them to Germany. But, don't let the highfalutin concept get in the way: it's a delicious meal and, importantly a slow-cooked treat that won't stress out whoever is cooking the Sunday roast.

On the lamb

This Eastern Mediterranean roast lamb is hardly a surprise. Whenever I get thinking about a Sunday roast of lamb, it inevitably turns towards the Eastern Mediterranean, most usually Greece. That's not as random as it sounds. For example, things that we think of as quintessentially "British"—such as a Sunday roast of lamb with mint sauce—have been far more heavily influenced by the Eastern Mediterranean than is obvious at first site.

For example, contemporaneous sources site pilgrims and Templar knights returning from Jerusalem and Acre during the Middle Ages as bringing back the tradition of pairing mint with roasted lamb, quite literally a symbolic and "holy meat" for both Christians and Jews. But, undoubtedly, it was Lord Byron and his posse, returning from their antics in Greece, who made mint sauce and lamb fashionable and something that would later become a British tradition.

At the height of his scandalous affair with Lady Caroline Lamb, pouty Lord Byron famously refused to be fed the sumptuous fare offered in his honour at a banquet, instead insisting on potatoes with vinegar. When asked by the host why he insisted on such plebian fodder despite the sumptuous dishes on offer, Byron retorted something along the lines of, "Because, Sir, tomorrow I shall be only able to afford potatoes in vinegar and therefore I shall not feel the loss."

In the way that gossip repeated takes on new dimensions, the widely spread anecdote morphed into something in which humble potatoes and vinegar became something noble and romantic. Not quite prepared to go all the way, food served up by cooks responsible for supper at the fashionable tables of London's elite conflated the tale with what they had learned from the widely reported adventures of Byron and other British aristos on the rampage in the Peloponnese. Lamb, vinegar, mint. And the rest, as they say, is history. Or at least a traditional British roast.

Thomas Phillips; 'Lord Byron in Albanian Dress' (1813), oil on canvas; 130cm × 102cm. Government Art Collection.

A different perspective

Not wanting to bring up exactly what Byron had been up to in Greece, my focus here is turned rather towards Germany and the arrival of Turkish gasarbeiters in the 1960s and 1970s. Today the EU has cemented human rights legislation across its vast expanse (and, yes, I know not everyone plays nicely). So it's probably hard for younger generations to even comprehend the realities of the 1970s when I was a kid.

On the upside, cheaper travel meant that more and more people in Northwestern Europe could afford to holiday in Southern Europe, discovering the flavours of olive oil, sundrenched tomatoes and cheap red wine. But, the downside was that Southern Europe at that time was in turmoil with oppressive and brutal dictatorships clinging to totalitarian power. This saw waves of Greek and Portuguese emigres settle in Germany (and elsewhere) where some opened little bistros with feelgood market appeal for Germans wanting to remember their summer holidays.

Turkish immigrants arrived in the next wave. Not dissimilar to British policy relating to the Caribbean in the 1950s, thousands of Turkish men (they didn't even have the right to bring their families with them until much later) arrived to do the jobs that increasingly educated Germans saw as beneath them: the cleaners, the garbage collectors or bus drivers in regions where all the young people had left...

But, as with most other Diasporas, there are always the canny who see a good opportunity. Industrious micro-entrepreneurs such up little cafés and takeaway joints, initially to service the ex-pats from their own communities. But, as is equally evidenced by numerous Diasporan cultures, soon the locals got curious. From the students and poor looking for cheap eats to the intelligentsia wishing to signal their cosmopolitan outlook, soon Turkish immigrant food culture was absorbed into the dominant discourse within Germany. And, just like elsewhere, a few generations on, assimilated Turkish-Germans challenged the stereotypes of their cuisine being somehow lacking.

Today Turkish cuisine in Germany occupies all strata; from the loved all-night joint at Schlesisches Tor in Berlin where night owls can still get all those affordable Turkish traditional dishes made to the highest standard through to Michelin-starred Turkish-German chefs who walk an elegant line in fusion cuisine.

So, for reasons I'm not going into here, this was the starting point when I decided it was time I cooked a Sunday roast for my oldest friend in the world, the ideal context for a long overdue tête-à-tête.

But, there are rules when I get my roast on: it needs to relate to the British Sunday roast more than just tangentially, even if the whole game is about playing with the form.

Conveniently, given the theme, I defaulted to lamb and one of my favourite lamb roasting joints, namely a roll of lamb's neck, conveniently devoid of bone and not overly fatty. As is the case in other recipes, such as my decidedly Greek Never on a Sunday roast, I favour pot roasting or "wet" roasting this particular joint of lamb, only roasting it exposed in the oven in the very final stages for that delicious browning. This keeps it moist and succulent.

And, keeping with the German-Turkish theme, I decided to serve it with Eastern Mediterranean-style slow-roasted veggies and the German beauty of spätzle (yeah, I never really need an excuse) in lieu of roasted potatoes, here with Eastern Med flavours of spinach, feta and flatleaf parsley.

Chilli-breaded squid, toasted sunflower seed and pomegranate molasses tzatziki and mushrooms à la grecque with lemon, capers and black olives.

This main course was bookended by a starter and pudding. The starter was chilli-breaded squid, a toasted sunflower seed and pomegranate molasses tzatziki and a take on mushrooms à la grecque with lots of lemon, capers and black olives, reduced down to pretty much a thick tapenade. And the dessert ended up being the Belgian peperkoek cheesecake.

Belgian peperkoek cheesecake.

This recipe is for 2 to 3 diners, but it is easily scaled up to 4 or more. Simply buy a slightly larger lamb joint, chuck in a few more vegetables and boil some additional spätzle. The baseline quantities of other ingredients do not need to be notably scaled up. For example, the leftovers from the quantities here alone yielded additional meals for both of us who enjoyed the initial outing.

3 top tips to get this recipe right:

• Properly browning the lamb is essential, especially with this kind of "wet" roasting. It helps to lock in the flavour and prevent the meat from becoming tough. Don't be worried even if it appears to be a little blackened at the early stage of the cooking. Once it slow-cooks in the wine, this will add to the intensity of your sauce.

• Do NOT make the mistake of trying to cook this dish with red wine. Yes, I know that white wine and lamb does not seem like an obvious choice, but the combination of sumac, lemon and rosemary demand it. You can have the red wine with it at table.

• I'm using a rolled roasting joint of lamb neck. But, there is no reason you can't use other lamb roasting joints—such as a classic leg of lamb—to cater to larger groups or in line with personal preferences. Simply adjust your cooking time accordingly, but ensure it remains moist by largely roasting in this covered pot manner.

Shopping list

for the Eastern Mediterranean roast lamb

• An appropriate lamb roasting joint; rolled neck or other

• 6 small red onions; peeled

• Approx. 2tbspns virgin olive oil

• 1 fresh lemon; cut in half

• 4 or 5 cloves of fresh garlic; peeled

• 3 or 4 whole sprigs of fresh rosemary

• 1 or 2 sprigs of fresh oregano

• 1 whole sweet red pepper per diner; topped and deseeded

• 650ml dry white wine—yes, pretty much a whole bottle...

• 3tspns sumac

• 1 tspn good quality black pepper

• 1 tspn cornflour (for the sauce)

• salt to taste

for the spätzle with spinach, feta and flatleaf parsley

• spätzle—approx. 3 handfuls per every 2 diners

• Approx. 150g feta cheese

• A generous clutch of flatleaf parsley; washed and drained

• Approx. 80g baby spinach; fresh or frozen

• 1tbspn of unsalted butter

• 1tspn of coarsely ground good quality black pepper

• salt to taste

for the dusted roasted pumpkin

•  pumpkin—1 large slice per diner

• 3tbspns of toasted breadcrumbs

• 1tspn ground dried sage

• 1tspn ground dried oregano

• 1tspn ground dried lemon sorrel

• 4 or 5 walnut halves

• Approx. 1tbspn virgin olive oil

• salt  and pepper to taste

  
  

Cooking method

the Eastern Mediterranean roast lamb

1. Ensure that your lamb is at room temperature. Season with salt, pepper and about half of the sumac, massaging into the surface of the meat on all sides. Allow to rest, covered loosely with a clean tea towel or paper towels, at room temperature for at least 20mins

2. In a suitably sized frying pan, heat 1tbspn of the oil on a medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add 2 of the garlic cloves. As soon as the aroma is released, add the lamb. Brown all over, gently turning. If you're doing it right, the oil should be hot enough to "spit", so be careful. To suitably brown, the process should take about 7 to 10mins. Don't worry if the garlic begins to burn. Merely remove it and put in the composter

3. Once the lamb is suitably browned, remove from the heat and transfer to a deep oven-proof dish or Dutch oven with a lid. While you are doing this, add the remaining cloves of garlic to the still hot pan, leaving them only long enough for the aroma to be released, then add them to the bottom of your roasting dish

4. Wedge the lemon halves and two of the red onions, also cut in half, on either side of the lamb. Pour in half of the wine, and place the whole twigs of rosemary and oregano around the lamb. Cover and place at the centre of an oven pre-heated to 200°C. Leave it to cook for 30mins without any interference

5. Remove the dish from the oven and reduce the heat to 160°C. By now the onions and lemon will have begun to soften. Push them down into the dish. Place whole small red onions secured on a skewer (you want these to remain whole for the plating) and the red sweet peppers beside the lamb. Pour in another quarter of the wine. Re-cover and return to the oven

6. Cook for approx. 2 hours, removing from the oven to turn the lamb every 20mins or so and topping up with dashes of the remaining wine. After 2hours—as long as the fat on the lamb is showing initial signs of becoming slightly browned—once again, increase the heat to 200°C. Mix the remaining olive oil and sumac, and baste the top of the lamb. Re-cover and return to the oven for 15mins

7. Remove from the oven and drain all of the juices from the dish into a suitable dish for using a handheld blender. Remove and discard the lemon and obvious rosemary twigs ,but keeping the leaves of both the rosemary and oregano to go into your sauce. Also, place any softened onion into the dish with the juices. Baste the lamb, skewered onions and red sweet peppers in the oil and sumac and return to the oven, uncovered, roasting for about 15 to 25mins, but turning and basting the lamb every 5 to 7mins

8. When the lamb is optimally cooked, turn off the oven. Re-cover and return the lamb, onions and sweet peppers to the oven so they remain warm. At this point, check that the roast pumpkin is also nearing optimal cooking (see below). If not, turn up the heat in the oven, removing the dish with the lamb and veggies

9. Using a handheld blender, blend all of the juices and onions into a smooth paste. Push through a sieve into a small saucepan (the kind for making sauces) and simmer on a medium heat, adding a little additional white wine, but reducing the liquid. When it's reduced to approx. 1 cup of liquid, add the cornflour, stirring vigorously. As soon as it has optimally thickened, decant to a sauce dish, ready to take to table

10. Plate the lamb, vegetables and spätzle, and take to table with the sauce

the spätzle with spinach, feta and flatleaf parsley

1. Chop the parsley and feta in a mini-chopper until a crumbly mix. You can do this some time before and store, covered, in the fridge, returning to room temperature before cooking the spätzle

2. Time cooking the spätzle in salted boiling water to be ready when the lamb and sauce are ready to be served. Timings vary, but you should allow 11 to 12 minutes if using dried spätzle, less if fresh

3. Time steaming the spinach to be ready when the spätzle is. A microwave steamer is the best method; it will barely take a minute, or slightly longer if cooking from frozen

4. As soon as the spätzle is cooked, drain thoroughly and return to the still hot pot. Immediately add the butter and stir in, followed by the black pepper. Add the steamed, drained spinach. Add all of the parsley and feta mix and fold in

5. Season to taste, cover and keep warm until plating with the other elements of the meal

the dusted roasted pumpkin

1. Parboil the pumpkin slices in boiling salted water for 6mins, then drain. This ensures the pumpkin does not become hard when roasted. You can do this some time before, storing in the fridge and returning to room temperature before cooking

2. Mix the breadcrumbs, walnut and dried herbs together in a mini-chopper or using a pestle and mortar. Time roasting the pumpkin to be ready when the lamb and other meal elements are. Depending on how hot the oven is when cooking it—naturally you'll cook it in the same over where the lamb is cooking—you should plan for it to take between 25 and 35mins to be perfectly cooked

3. Place the pumpkin on a baking tray or in an ovenproof dish. Season with salt and pepper and then baste liberally with olive oil. Roast in the oven for about 10mins

4. Remove and turn over the pumpkin with tongs. Baste this side with oil, this time sprinkling with the mix of breadcrumbs and herbs. Return to the oven

5. Repeat this process of turning, basting and sprinkling with the mix approx. every 5 to 7mins, until the breadcrumbs become golden and the pumpkin properly cooked i.e. a fork passes effortlessly through the flesh

6. Plate together with the lamb and other meal elements and take to table

Alternatives

This dish is very much about roast lamb, and therefore not easy to adapt for vegans and vegetarians. However, I have done fantastic plant-based versions with what would generally be called "a nut roast". The version I created included bulgur wheat, mushrooms, walnuts, brown lentils, lemon zest, sumac and numerous other ingredients. Since it's a whole other recipe, I'm not getting into it here, but you get the picture...

I have never tried a pescatarian version, and I can't say it leaps off the page. I've certainly done a variant of a Sunday roast with lobster, but I'm not sure it would match with the other ingredients here.

Pairings

Undoubtedly, the best paired wine I have had with this dish was a Château Musar Rouge (Gaston Hochar) 2018 from Lebanon's Beqaa Valley. I discovered this wine unexpectedly at a great impromptu meal with artists and friends at one of those places that seem to have been there forever in Antwerp's Hoogstraat. I tracked it down in London and it was utterly superb when I first tried out this dish.

Sadly, however, I couldn't get my hands on any when I cooked the more recent meal. However, no fear, a bottle of Château Puech-Haut, Tête de Bélier Saint-Drézéry Rouge

2022, worked out quite nicely.

There are many reds out there that will work perfectly with this dish. The only (mis)guidance I can give is that is needs to be something that can take on the rather acidic citrus, almost bitter flavours in the dish. Hence, my gut instinct is to avoid anything too heavy or woody that will crush it like a sledgehammer, But, we could always ask Karel...