Friday, August 14, 2009

Janu's Lamb Currys


So my sister loves this dish. Every time she visits me, she has me cook her quantities of lamb for her ultimate satisfaction. Its not hard to make but takes, time and patience.

Janu's Lamb Curry:
Time:
prepping
20 minutes
marinading
3-6 hours (or overnight)
Cooking
2 hours
eating:
as long and as much as you wish..

For 3 lbs of lamb (ask the butcher to chop it to bite size pieces. I recommend keeping the bone)
Marinade:
1 cup of plain yogurt
Siriacha sauce
Masala mix
salt
1 spn of ginger (minced or paste)
garlic
green chillies


Curry:
A large bayleaf,
2 cardamom pods
3 cloves
1 cinnamon stick

2 large onions chopped fine
6-8 cloves of garlic minced
an inch of ginger minced
a handful of fresh cilantro chopped fine
4 hot green chillies (the thai green chillies or 2 jalapenos)
a spn of cumin seed
2 tbspn of corriander powder
1 spn of turmeric powder
1 tbsp of red chilli- or by taste preference
salt to tast
Cooking oil
2 tomatoes diced
2 tbspns of tomato sauce


Ok -
So Marinade the lamb in a bowl mixing in thoroughly all the ingredients for the marinade and cover with a plate and refrigerate for 3-4 hours (or overnight).

The curry:

  1. Heat the oil in a large pot. Throw in a spn full of cumin seed, bayleaf, cardamon, cinnamon and cloves. They will splutter.
  2. Next add the ginger, garlic and fresh cilantro (a swizz recipe secret). Stir the ingredients till coated with oil.
  3. Stir in the onions- slow stirring highly recommended. Add in the coriander pwd, turmeric pwd, chili pwd and salt. Slowly stir in the masala coating the onions adding a beautiful ochre color to the curry. Let the onions sweat and release the oil.
  4. Next add the marinaded lamb. Pick the pieces and not pour in the lamb. Let there be extra marinade left in the bowl. Coat the lamb with the onion sauce. Let the lamb fry with the onions. Very important not to let the onions stick. Keep slow stirring. The lamb will start to release its oils along the edge of the pot.
  5. Now it is ready for the diced tomatoes. Throw in the tomatoes and continue stirring slowly. After another 10 minutes the tomatoes will begin to disintegrate in the sauce lending a red color.
  6. Add any remaining marinade and stir it in with the sauce.
  7. Add 2 tbsps of tomato sauce to give the sauce a thickness. Stir till the sauce is even and the lamb is well coated. Let the sauce bubble.
  8. Add water to the sauce till the lamb is completely covered with water. Cover the pot with lid. Turn the heat to simmer and let the lamb simmer for atleast 45 minutes. Check for tenderness. The lamb should fall off the bone. If not add some more water and let it simmer. It takes atleast 1 1/2 hours to slow cook the lamb till it slowly falls of the bone.
  9. Add Papa's masala for the finish (write to me for more info on Papa's masala). Taste for salt.
Serve with basmati rice, chapatti, or parathas. Pairs well with a red cabernet sauvignon

Yum!

Another very simple Lamb curry recipe from Foodista
Lamb Curry on FoodistaLamb Curry