Kokkinisto (Greek Braised Red Lamb with Tomatoes)

This year, Christmas Eve was spent cooking, taking pictures, and frantically trying to scribble down a surprise recipe that I would be proud to call the best lamb recipe I have ever made.  I think I need to just start following my brother around and taking notes on everything he does.  When I showed up yesterday to help make dinner, he was making two boneless legs of lamb into a dish that didn't sound quite my style.  So I asked if I could set one aside to do something different.  And while I'm rummaging around in my recipe folder for a lamb recipe, he just busts this one out off the top of his head, rivaling the best Greek restaurant lamb dish I've ever tried.  After thinking about it for the duration of the cooking process, he finally goes, "it's called kokonisto or something".  So we looked it up, and sure enough, there's a dish called kokkinisto, and even without a recipe he basically nailed it.  It's a braised meat dish (kokkinisto means "reddened" in Greek, I believe) cooked in tomato, and often with red wine, and just a tiny hint of cinnamon to accentuate the spiced flavors.  Usually lamb is used, but I found recipes for beef and chicken on the web as well.

Kokkinisto - braised lamb in a tomato sauce.  OMG.

I present the recipe as I will make it moving forward, just adding some red wine and serving over orzo, a rice-shaped pasta that really helps hold the sauce and is a traditional accompaniment in Greek restaurants.  But this was excellent on its own, and I devoured every bite, excited to make this again at my house.  And you should make it in yours.




Kokkinisto (Greek Braised Lamb in Tomatoes and Wine)
from: my brother, with fact-checking courtesy of the interwebs

• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp crushed black pepper
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 5-6 pound boneless leg of lamb, or bone-in lamb shanks
• 2 tbsp grapeseed oil
• 1 large yellow onion, coarsely chopped
• 10 cloves of garlic, peeled, coarsely chopped
• 3 cloves, whole
• 2 bay leaves, dried
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (I know I have a few of these things above, but I split them based on the cooking process.  Don't get your panties in a bunch - there are a few duplicate ingredients).
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp crushed black pepper
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 32 ounces beef stock
• 1 large tomato
• 1 tbsp honey, agave syrup, or sugar
• 26-28 ounce container of chopped / diced peeled tomatoes, preferably Pomi / Parmalat brand

Take your lamb, set it on a large cutting board, and season liberally with salt and black pepper.  Now coat the surfaces in oregano flakes, and apply just a dash of cinnamon.  Don't get crazy with the cinnamon, I put 1/4 tsp but if that seems like too much, just use a pinch here.  There's more later anyway.

Mmm, lamb bits.

Season with salt, pepper, oregano, and a little cinnamon

Brown the lamb in the grapeseed oil on a huge griddle or, since you probably don't have an industrial kitchen in your house, in a large heavy non-nonstick (i.e. stainless, cast iron, or copper) dutch oven or skillet.  Why grapeseed oil?  Because I said so.  Don't you trust me yet?  Seriously though, grapeseed oil is a great compromise of less heavily processed oil, flavor, and a decent smoke point (420 F), compared to butter's 300 F, extra virgin olive oil at 375 F, and canola oil's 400 F.  Not as good as peanut oil at 450 F, but it's also not gross-tasting.  So when you cook in this, you can brown hotter with less risk of oil oxidation and off flavors.  If you want to scale back on price, use extra light olive oil, with its mighty 468 F smoke point.  You'll be cutting back on quality too, though.

Brown the lamb on all sides in grapeseed or extra light (not extra virgin) olive oil

We remember what browned meat looks like, right?  Nicely browned, after letting the Maillard reaction take place to cook some of the proteins.  You're not actually caramelizing any sugars, but it's darned close

Brown that meat on all sides, turning every few minutes.  Now, if you're fortunate and have a huge kitchen with too many pots, you can start the next step at the same time.  Although I would prefer that you wait and do this in the skillet / pot you browned your meat in, to scrape up the delicious fond that forms as you brown the meat.  Whenever / wherever you do it, take your chopped onions and garlic, add the salt and pepper, and saute for a few minutes, scraping the browned bits from the lamb (if available) off the pan to incorporate.  When done, add the rest of the cinnamon, tomato paste, bay leaves, cloves, and fresh thyme, and stir for a few seconds.  Deglaze with the red wine (if using, although we didn't use last night), then add the beef stock and fresh tomato, which hopefully you coarsely chopped in advance despite my not saying so above.  We didn't bother peeling it.  Note: do NOT add the large can of diced tomatoes here - we added this after the lamb was cooked.  Add just a dash of sweetener to this; my brother is in love with agave syrup these days, but I would be fine with white sugar, or even a mild honey.  A tablespoon should do it.

Quickly cook this for a few minutes, either while the lamb is browning separately or, better yet, in the lamb pan so you can scrape off the flavor bits from the bottom of the pan

Add tomato paste, then deglaze with red wine

Put the nicely browned meat in the sauce, and let it cook for 2-3 hours until tender and almost falling apart.

Lay the meat into this sauce mixture, turn to coat, and place over low heat for 2-3 hours, partially covered, until tender and falling apart.  You can use a slow cooker, a pressure cooker, a big-ass pot on the stove, or do what my brother did and actually cook it in the convection oven at 325 F.  Although if you don't have a convection oven, don't bother with that route - the lack of circulating air will slow this way down, and you're better off on the stovetop or counter.  If using any method besides slow cooker or pressure cooker, make sure to turn the meat frequently to coat in the sauce and promote even cooking.

After you're done, this is what it might look like

When the meat is done, kill the heat and remove meat (carefully) to a platter.  Taste the cooking liquid and adjust seasonings as necessary.  Be warned - it's going to be pretty delicious, and you may be tempted to pick it up and drink it like a bloody mary.  Resist the urge to do this - your guests will be mad at you.  Instead, do what you can to get the fat out of there, whether that's spooning it off the top, ladling into a narrow pitcher and removing it from there with a baster, or using a fat separator.  Or do what I did - nothing.  Have a Christmas feast of lamb grease, I don't care.  For the record, I passed out at the dinner table this year.

We blended half the sauce, which I think was just about right.  Don't leave too many chunks in there, but a few are great.

Once the fat is removed, or not, take about half of the sauce and run it through a blender to puree.  Add this back to the pot, and now add the can or box of chopped /diced tomatoes.  Reduce this sauce for a good 20-30 minutes over LOW heat to thicken, stirring very frequently with a silicone spatula to prevent sticking.  There's so much sugar in the tomato that it will burn quickly, ruining the sauce unless you are vigilant.

After the sauce is reduced sufficiently that you think it will coat the meat and you're ready to eat it, you can move on.  Chop meat into large serving chunks if using leg of lamb, or leave shanks whole if using those.  Return meat to pot, turn gently to bathe in the sauce, and give it however long it needs to warm back up to serving temperature.  When ready, plate by serving large lamb chunks with liberal amounts of sauce poured on top.  I wish I had plated over orzo, but may add new pictures when that happens, since it's definitely going to be made again.  Feel free to garnish with finely minced parsley, and enjoy!

Served this time with roasted potatoes and carrots, but I would do orzo next time

Another look at the sauce - arguably a bit too much fat left in, but deliciously thick and velvety regardless.  No huge tomato or onion chunks - it's up to you how rustic you want to make it.