summer greek roast lamb mezze

God, this holiday business is bloody awesome. PD has been staying at mine and each morning we have started the day with a swim, followed by coffees and crosswords, general pottering, cooking and afternoon (repeat) swims. Given he enjoys cooking almost (he would argue equally) as much as I do, we take turns whipping up dinners for each other. Following on from the chicken satay meatball extravaganza, he made delicious Sri Lankan fried fish balls to be eaten while watching the T20 cricket, and yesterday we decided we were in a Mediterranean frame of mind…must be all that swimming. And so, after an outing to the amazing Westmere Butchers I literally threw the lamb shanks in the oven and forgot about them while we lazed, trimmed the hedge, read books and enjoyed our second swim. My mum had brought a gift of home made pickled beetroot for Christmas, so I used a good helping, along with freshly dry-fried cumin seeds, salty feta and garlic to whiz together one dip, and whisked yoghurt, mayo and loads of garlic to make the extra toum-like concoction. The combination of meltingly tender aromatic lamb with the two sauces, warm bread, olives and a glass of red was absolutely magical. Everything could easily be doubled or tripled to feed more.

2 lamb shanks
1/2 onion, sliced
1 red chilli, sliced
2 bay leaves
3 sprigs rosemary
3 cloves garlic
5 olives
1 cup rosé
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Feta beetroot whip:

200g cooked beetroot
80g soft feta
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tsp toasted cumin seeds

Garlicky yoghurt:

1 cup Greek natural yoghurt
1/4 cup good quality egg mayonnaise
3 cloves garlic

To serve: freshly warmed Turkish bread or foccacia and a bowl of olives

Preheat the oven to 150˚C fan bake. Put the onions in the base of a small roasting dish and top with the lamb shanks (so they are snug). Tuck in the chilli, herbs, garlic, and olives and pour the wine over. Season really well with salt and pepper and cover tightly with tinfoil, then cook for 4 hours. Loosen the tinfoil so some liquid can reduce, turn the lamb shanks over and cook 1 hour, then remove the tinfoil, increase the heat to 180˚C  and cook for half an hour. Serve with flatbreads, olives and dips.

For the beetroot feta whip, throw everything in a food processor and whiz until smooth. Season well with salt and pepper and store covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.

For the garlicky mayo, whisk everything together, season well with salt and pepper and store covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.