Hi Mamta and friends,

This is not related to Indian food, but still. The first time i had braised lamb was on a flight. It was ever so tender and it melted in my mouth, checked the internet for its recipe of which they were many, I am a bit unsure.

Can a non stick casserole be used to braise lamb (or oven is the best)?

Onions, garlic and vegetables used.....

Fry onions till light brown and then fry the lamb leg with it till brown, pop the lamb with onions veggies(carrots, ??????) in the oven or casserole with Red wine (is wine necessary??). Cover the dish with a lid.

Raw garlic cloves be inserted into lamb (When)?

Cook it on low flame (2-3 hours)until lamb is tender.

What about salt, and herbs/spices??

Any suggestions?

Thanks

One of the best lamb dishes I've had is "Kleftiko" a slow braised Greek/Cypriot dish. The basics are put some liquid in with the lamb, cover and put in the oven for several hours (all day sometimes in a low oven).

Its so soft you can eat it with a spoon !

Its traditionally made in a wood fired oven (Fourno) and sealed up until done, but it can be emulated in a normal oven.

As for spicing/herb/wine etc well everyone does it there own way...

Some might put water, lemon, salt and oregano in, others might add garlic to the others. Then some will make it with red wine, some might add rosemary, some could even add mint...

Garlic added into the skin would roast along with the meat...

Steve

I find oven is best for braising, but lots of people do use stove top, so you could try it.

I made up a recipe a while back which came out nicely:

http://www.kaveyeats.com/2009/11/boneless-leg-of-lamb-braised-in-red.html

Thanks Steve, the prospects looks exiting, in the oven the whole day in low setting?....my wife is moan about the bills (she is vegetarian)ha ha.

I will try this next week.

Thanks Kavey, i saw your recipe, looks great. Didnt you cover the lamb in the oven??.

I have been thinking about Paganum (their 8.5 kg offer). I had the impression that the meat was frozen. The only problem would be that there will be no space left in the freezer for my wife's frozen vegetables and pies. :)

I don't think so, no!

not related to Indian food! they could have invented it!!

The Indian equivalent to a braise is a korma, believe it or not. Let me state what a braise is, from a scientific point of view.

A braise is cooking a whole joint of meat in a mixture of water and fat based liquid, with vegetables in a covered (even sealed) pot. The liquid only comes half way up the joint, this is vital, as only the meat above the liquid gets browned, because of the Maillard reaction. This reaction is between carbohydrates (from the veg or spices) and proteins in the meat and connective tissue, the latter breaks down on heating, forming gelatin. It is necessary to turn the joint from time to time, so that all parts of the meat can brown. Temperature is between 120 and 140 ?C.

In Indian cooking, a true braise is a korma, but not the insipid restaurant offerings, true kormas are usually lamb/mutton/goat/chimaera, and more recently, chicken, to which curds/cream/ghee is added along with spices and sometimes nuts, even chillies. The pot is sealed with a ribbon of dough, and placed on a clay range with embers on the lid (or in a western oven). The pan is shaken from time to time. When ready, the pastry dough is peeled away (but not eaten), and the pot opened. This is a real korma, which also includes rogan josh and dopyaz dishes, although there are very many different kinds, none of which have coconut in!!

The meat must be on the bone so that some is out of the water, and tougher, more flavoursome cuts are usually used.

Point noted Lapis, so the joint needs to be turned between intervals. Thanks.

The korma dished out in a Bengali restaurant near our place is far too creamy and too sweet, kids love it but for adults it is a recipe for heart attack. And i believe they certainly do not cover it with pastry when cooking.

yes, Rajneesh, those restaurant kormas are nothing like the real deal, they would be hard pressed to do it on demand!

The pan is not covered in pastry, there's just a ribbon of dough around the edge of the pot, to seal the pot to its lid, its not pressure proof, but will keep in most moisture.

How interesting! I guess the gelatin-forming process is what happens in Ian Hoare's coq-au-vin recipe (on this site), which I once did, but there's no half-covered requirement there.

I often found, back in the UK, that, in many Indian restaurants, the dishes called 'Rogan Josh' and 'Dupiaza' were virtually indistinguishable.

Phil

Traditionally R Josh should be reddish in colour. Interestingly in this orginal Kashmiri dish no onions or garlic were used (in restaurants nowadays they use tomatoes)and the red colour was imparted by Kashmiri chillies. But presently the recipe now varies in different parts of India.

NB : Lapis posted a recipe of kasmiri rogan josh some time ago.

the rogan josh recipe I posted is essentially that of the Pandits (Hindus) of Jammu and Kashmir, where the majority of people are muslim, hence all the 'disagreement' that goes on there. It is very similar to one I had at 'The Taj West End' restaurant, at The Taj Hotel in Bangalore, cooked by order of the executive chef, Sandeep Kachroo, himself a Pandit. He sat with a gourmet friend of mine and myself as we ate lunch (for free!) including the rogan josh

The red colour comes from the carotenes in the chillies, but I use sweet peppers to provide the colour (and some flavour) by extracting it into oil. The fat/oil layer should be red, and the lower layer (spices, curds and pepper debris) is brown. It is truly a dish for winter months.

Some people, even Indians, don't believe rogan josh (or dopyaz dishes) are kormas, but then a korma is a braised dish, so 'korma' is a technique rather than just one dish. Kashmiri cuisine has many kormas, including one containing many chillies, and these are semi hot, NOT the mild ones purported to be 'Kashmiri chillies', which really come from Karnataka, and called Byadgi chillies.

In Indian restaurants, as most of the 'curries' are derived from the same stock (mush), there is no wonder that most of the dishes look (and taste) the same.

Is there some confusion then with words like "korma" being taken to far as a single dish rather than a general term ?

We might call something a "stew" but there are many types of stew, each of which might also have other names.

A few examples might be Greek Stifado (a rich stew made with wine and baby onions), cornbeef hash ( a potato, gravy and corned beef stew), tavas (another Greek dish made with pork and potatos) and on and on the list could grow. These would all be examples of a stew but we know them by other names..

So is using the term "korma" in many restaurants/takeaways actually just saying its a "stew" but for some reason they have nearly all adopted the similar coconut/cream/nuts version of the stew ? When they should be being more specific about what it actually is ?

Steve

first off, Steve, lets just say it, 'Indian restaurants' are a law unto themselves, the dishes are Indian in name only, and all are misapplied. None (save the simplest kebabs and sundries) are the real deal, because the vast majority of customers don't know what real Indian food tastes like, or care, it would seem. I've endured lots of meals in the interest of being sociable, but I am 'diplomatic' when asked anything, not wishing to offend.

In fact braises and stew are examples of compound techniques, braising using joints of meat on the bone and stews using cubed meat off the bone, but both using long slow cooking with tough meat cuts. Vindaloo (without potatoes) is an example of an Indian stew, as is the aptly named estew!!

Other techniques (rather than a dish) include bhuna (dry fried) jalfrezi (hot stir fried) biryanis, pulaos, karahi, pasanda (a specific size and cut of meat) and bhajis (various meanings), balti is made up!

Pathias, dhansak, vindaloo, describe one dish, although there may be variations, but traditionally, single dishes are made with one type of meat only, say pork or mutton or chicken or fish, but other meats are used, Panda pasanda is a particular favourite of mine, as is kangaroo vindaloo and tandoori ostrich (OK I lied about the panda pasanda!)

So it can be seen the matrix menu of Indian restaurants is way way off the mark, just like the matrix menu of the Chinese takeaway!

"kangaroo vindaloo" so hot it will have you jumping up and down ... lol

Steve

LOL!