Lambakopita

After I made all the stock on Sunday, I threw the beef bones away and rescued the lamb stew meat from the bottom of the big stock pot. After hours of simmering, it was shreddy and lovely, but still had some good lamby flavor. I put it in the fridge with an eye towards doing something later using the goat whey we had left from cheese making. And a day or two later, I noticed the fillo dough in the freezer. Along with some ground lamb.

After thawing, I browned the ground meat well with onion, herbs, chopped Kalamata olives, preserved lemon, and copious minced garlic. I folded in the shredded stew meat, and made a roux using a little of the marrow-roasting fat (from two posts ago) that I had reserved for such a nefarious purpose, and then whisked in a bunch of the goat milk whey to make whéchamel. This I used to liase, elide, and otherwise dipthong the hell out of all the meaty goodness. And then I rolled it all up in about a dozen sheets of fillo, brushed with 50/50 olive oil and butter. And baked it until done.

We ate it with chives, their flowers, and a squeeze of lemon. Also playing an important role was another stunningly fresh salad of everything good from the garden, picked mere minutes before. Salad picked à la minute is noticeably superior to longer-languished greenery. Last, a delightful Provencal rosé; I’m going to write a little post soon about our current favorites since it’s just about all we drink now that it’s hot. A perfect match for this kind of food. The pie was even better cold for lunch the next day; using the whéchamel really helped avoid the gritty cold tallow texture that can be so off-putting when cold red meats are involved.