Fakde Recipe — Leg of Lamb

Leg of lamb is the dish of special days and the star of our festive meals. It is placed in the center of the table, and it is served by the man of the house. Ideally, the leg of lamb is cooked with its bone in to benefit from all its flavors. And above all, don't forget to keep the cooking juices to serve as a sauce.

Ingredients
115 g (½ cup) unsalted butter or ghee
1 leg of lamb (2 kg)
3 stalks of celery, with leaves
2 carrots
1 onion, cut in half
Parsley leaves
4 cardamom pods
3 cinnamon sticks
3 bay leaves
3 slices of fresh ginger
1 ½ tsp. tablespoons of peppercorns
½ tsp. tablespoon of salt
1 punnet of coffee mushrooms
200 g (1 cup) small baby potatoes

Preparation
Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C). In a large casserole dish, melt the butter or ghee. When hot, sear the leg of lamb on all surfaces. Cover a third of the way with water. Add the celery, carrots, onion, parsley, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf, ginger, pepper and salt.

Bake for about 4 hours or until the meat is tender and flakes with a fork. After 2 hours of cooking, add the mushrooms and potatoes.

Transfer the leg of lamb to a large serving dish. Arrange the carrots, mushrooms and potatoes around.

In a sieve, filter the cooking juice (discard the other vegetables), then pour the liquid into a bowl or gravy boat. Serve with meat, vegetables and smoked wheat (see the recipe in the book).

Note

To further flavor your lamb, you can replace 250 ml (1 cup) of water with 250 ml (1 cup) of white wine.

The entire souk of Damascus

The seven spices of Aleppo