Sometimes on belly we have guests and interviews plannned that we think are completely unrelated, and as we follow the food stories and take our usual tasty tangents, all sorts of interesting links appear and reappear. This was one such show. Ilias invited his friend Dino’s mum, Paraskevi a.k.a Beryl, and I (along with sister Deanna), recorded some stories from the 2013 Sample Food Festival, including a lovely interview with Australia’s only ‘hatted’ indigenous chef, Clayton Donovan. And somehow we ended up spending a lot of time discussing how to cook the Australian national crest, the kangaroo and the emu, a.k.a. in Paraskevi’s wonderful euphemism, ‘bush chook’.
Here is an old family recipe.
YIAYIA KONSTANDINIA’S YIOUVETSI
Ingredients for four hearty diners!
MEAT
3 halved lamb shanks, skin cleaned off.
2 lamb necks cut in 2 or 3, trimmed of fat. 1 heaped tbsn thick tomato paste diluted in water and 2 large chopped tomatoes
5 cloves garlic, 1 large bayleaf, cracked pepper, salt, knob of butter, olive oil
SAUCE
5 ripe large Roma tomatoes, diced
4 tbspns flat parsley, roughly chopped
2 large brown onions, roughly chopped
2 Heaped tbspns of thick tomato paste diluted in water
Butter and olive oil
Salt, cracked pepper
PASTA-500gms risone pasta -Divella, San Remo, Misko etc.
METHOD
Heat oven to 220C
Mix all MEAT ingredients together in a very well greased ovenproof (preferably earthenware) deep ‘pudding’ or mixing bowl, large enough to fit the meat and with a little space to spare.
Place UPSIDE DOWN in the centre of a 30-35cm x 10cm deep, well greased baking dish (ie Bessemer or Le Creuset or earthenware are good).
SAUCE
Gently sauté onions in the oil and butter and pepper, add diced tomatoes and parsley. Sauté gently fir a few minutes then stir in remaining ingredients.
Place this sauce in the large baking dish, distributed evenly around the bowl. Place a heavy rock or other object on top of the bowl to keep it secure and tight. Pour about 5 cups of boiling water over the sauce (the water should come up about 3-4cm around the bowl.
Place in oven and reduce temperature to 190C. Roast for about 1-3/4 to 2 hours always topping up boiling water to 3-4 cm, as above.
Remove from oven and check for taste – esp for salt and gently distribute the pasta around the baking dish, add about 3cm of water above the pasta.
Return to oven until pasta is cooked and water is absorbed but not dried out. It has to be juicy.
Fry a large knob of butter until it is brown and pour this over the pasta.
NOW FOR THE DRAMA AND DELICIOUS AROMAS
Serve at the table by slowly prizing the bowl off the meat and allowing the meat to fall out of the bowl into the dish.
Each guest may serve themselves or the host may do so.
Best served with Strained sheep or goat yoghurt, cucumber/tomato salad.
Do provide thin skewers so guests can prize the bone marrow out of the shank bones. Have some moist hand towels handy for those who handle, and like to clean every tasty morsel off, the bones. Do, also, provide a large bowl for the ‘denuded’ bones!
YIAYIA KONSTANTINIA (1875-1956) via granddaughter BERYL GEORGAKOPOULOS.