Pulled lamb yiros with tzatziki

My brother and sister-in-law got us a slow cooker for Christmas. As soon as I unwrapped it, I knew it was pulled meat time. Pulled pork, pulled beef, pulled chicken and of course pulled lamb.

I’ve always been a little scared of cooking red meat – nervous about how easy it is to overcook. However after years of bragging about how good Greek food is, I had to deliver when having a few friends over for a Greek dinner party.

I consider chicken yiros one of my specialities – it’s easy, light and delicious. However I was dying to try cooking a leg of lamb for the first time. So after being inspired by Kevin from Closet Cooking I ventured into new territory. Thanks Kevin for sharing your amazing lamb recipe! I made a few changes to Kevin’s recipe – more garlic (I love garlic), added some veggies plus I used Nostimini, a Greek spice mix.  

Pulled lamb yiros:

• Pulled lamb
• Greek pita bread
• Tzatziki
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Onion (I grill mine – raw is fine if you like raw onion).

Lamb:

• 1.5 – 1.8kg leg of lamb
• 7 cloves of garlic
•  ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 lemons (depending on juicy they are 1.5 could be fine)
• 6 potatoes (cut in eighths)
• 4 carrots (cut in strips)
• 2 – 3 tablespoon Nostimini (I could have put more – you can get it from Gaganis Brothers or Foodland)
• Salt to taste
• 1.5 cups of water

Tzatziki:

• 2 cups of yoghurt (drained)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 3-4 medium cloves of garlic (to taste)
• Half a Lebanese cucumber (grated)
• Squeeze of lemon
• Pinch of salt

Method:

For the lamb:
1.       Put lamb into the slow cooker and add lemon, Nostimini, garlic, olive oil, potatoes, carrots and salt. Marinate overnight in the fridge.
2.       The next morning add 1.5 cups of water
3.       Cook for 8-9 hours in the slow cooker on low
4.       Remove the vegetables from the slow cooker
5.       Remove the fat and bone from the lamb and shred with two forks.

 

 

 

 

For the tzatziki:

1.       Put the Greek yoghurt in a sieve with a thick paper towel and put in a bowl. Drain yoghurt overnight. This will give you a thicker consistency.
2.       Remove the yoghurt from the sieve and paper towel
3.       Grate cucumber finely and remove access water by squeezing it tightly
4.       Cut garlic very finely
5.       Add cucumber, garlic, olive oil, lemon and salt to the yoghurt
6.       Refrigerate until you use it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Putting it together:

1.       Cut lettuce, tomato and onion finely
2.       Add a little bit of olive oil to a pan and heat up each piece of pita bread (keep warm in the oven if you are cooking for a group)
3.       Put lamb in a bowl and take tzatziki out of the fridge
4.       Give everyone a piece of pita bread and they can make their own yiros. I recommend tzatziki first but completely up to you! Don’t overfill it.

This feeds 6-8 people, usually with leftovers for the next day (my kind of dinner party!). 

A simple, fresh and delicious dish that is perfect for dinner parties. They are fun to make and you can prepare most of it the night before. I will warn you though – they can be messy. So serve when entertaining friends, not on a first date or when meeting your potential future in-laws for the first time.

Let me sign off with a fun yoghurt fact – Dannon was the first company to manufacture yoghurt with fruit on the bottom in 1947.*

*Dairy Goodness