My Easter recipe: Greek-style marinated lamb

This is a delicious way to cook lamb with a distinctly Mediterranean feel. It’s super fresh, easy to prepare and would be perfect for Easter Sunday. I would serve it with pitta bread and chilli sauce. It pairs well with a chilled bottle of Sangiovese.

Serves 2

The lamb

– 2 lamb shanks

– 1-2 sprigs rosemary

– 1-2 sprigs oregano

– 1-2 sprigs mint

– 2 tbsp dried oregano

– 2 tbsp dried mint

– 1 tbsp smoked paprika

– ½ tbsp ground cumin

– ½ tbsp ground coriander

– ½ tbsp Aleppo chilli powder

– 500ml lamb stock (or chicken stock)

– 1 small red onion, sliced

– 5 garlic cloves, sliced

– 1 lemon, sliced

– 1 tbsp Maldon salt

– 100ml olive oil

Tzatziki

– 250g Greek yogurt

– ½ large cucumber

– 2 garlic cloves

– 2 sprigs dill

– 2 sprigs mint

– salt and white pepper

– drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Greek salad

– 200g vine cherry tomatoes

– ½ large cucumber

– ½ red pepper

– ½ small red onion

– 30g black olives

– 90-100g feta cheese

– pinch dried oregano

– 1 tbsp poppy seeds

– salt and white pepper

– 1 lemon

– splash sherry vinegar

– large glug of extra virgin olive oil

Slice the red onion, lemon and garlic, roughly chop the herbs, salt and pepper, and then mix in a bowl with the olive oil. Cover the shanks overnight in the marinade.

Preheat the oven to 150˚C, remove any bits of onion and lemon from the shanks then sear the meat in a pan with a splash of olive oil until browned. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Then add the leftover marinade to the pan, cover it with a lid and transfer to the oven. Bake, stirring occasionally, for 2½-3 hours or until the lamb is falling off the bone.

While it is in the oven, grate the cucumber and squeeze out as much liquid as you can, and crush the garlic as fine as possible, then combine these with the yoghurt. Chop the mint and dill, then stir all the ingredients together and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

Chop the feta into chunks, slice the tomatoes in half and slice the cucumber, red pepper and red onion as finely as possible. In a big salad bowl, combine the feta, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, red pepper, olives, dried oregano and poppy seeds. Then add the zest and juice of the lemon, a splash of sherry vinegar and finally a large glug or two of extra virgin olive oil. Season well with salt and pepper.

When the lamb is falling off the bone, remove it from the pan and strain the stock. If needed, reduce the stock to thicken. Pull the lamb off the bone before returning it to the pan and mixing it with the stock. Serve.