CHEF and blogger Paul James writes for our paper.
I will soon be going back to the place where this journey started, Kassiopi, Corfu.
It’s here at this historically traditional little fishing village, just north-east of Corfu where the idea for my ‘Recipes From My Travels’ blog was born just over a couple of years ago.
Two years prior to visiting Kassiopi, I nearly passed away with a serious illness. I’m not going to bore you with that, but I was in a very dark place having had to retire from a career I loved – being a chef.
This story has been highlighted many times before but being here rekindled that passion to enjoy life once more.
Two years later, that’s exactly what I’m doing – not taking life for granted as every second is precious and trying to enjoy and capture every moment like a photograph, not only for me to cherish but for others too.
This might not be my usual foodie article, but travel, food and life all come hand in hand to me so please bear with me, I promise I won’t get to sentimental.
In just over two years I have taught myself how to use social media to broaden my knowledge, instead of just being nosey, my geeky ability has now gone from only being able to write swear words upside down on a calculator to stringing sentences along on a laptop.
I’m a published author (not only once but three times, soon to be five), food and travel writer and columnist, I have three blogs and a website and have made thousands of friends around the world promoting businesses in the hospitality and tourism industry worldwide.
What I’m trying to say is that whatever life throws at you, you can overcome that issue by talking to someone about it. Never suffer alone and most importantly never be ashamed to share your story, because one day your story maybe someone else’s guiding light.
This recipe is everything I love about cooking, no fancy sauces, no fancy swirls or drizzles – just simple no nonsense food that you can leave to slowly cook away while you take things nice and easy.
Visit recipesfrommytravels.com for Paul’s blog and recipes.
Braised lamb Kleftiko with lemon and garlic potatoes
Ingredients
2 lamb shanks
1 bulb garlic ( 2 cloves thinly sliced )
2 lemons ( halved ) retain some zest
1tbs dried oregano
8 new potatoes
4 bay leaves
200ml white wine
Greek sea Salt flakes
black pepper
1 red onion cut into chunks
olive oil
A couple of sprigs of Rosemary
Method
1. Place the lamb shanks into a deep cooking tray.
2. With a sharp knife, make small incisions about 5 to 10mm deep around the lamb.
3. Crush open a bulb of garlic, keeping two cloves to thinly slice into slithers.
4. Insert the garlic slithers into the lamb and scatter the rest of the garlic around the tray.
5. Add all the rest of the ingredients to the tray including the juice of the lemons.
6. Tightly seal the tray with a couple of layers of foil and refrigerate overnight (or at least a couple of hours)
7. Remove the tray from the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
8. In the meantime pre-heat the oven to 180°C
9. Place the tray, still sealed with the foil into the oven and reduce the temperature to 140°C and cook slowly for three hours.
10. Remove from the oven, discard foil, squeeze the lemon and spoon the juices over your lamb and return back to the oven for a further one hour at 180°C
11. Remove from the oven, let the lamb rest for a good half hour then serve with your lovely steam baked lemon and garlic infused potatoes.
