Hello everyone, looking for a really delicious lamb curry recipe.

Which is your favorite?

To be honest I prefer mutton for curries and Spinach works well... !

Steve

saag lamb gets a good run at our house! Its in here, search saag.

Cheers

Steve

mine would be a Pandit version of Rogan Josh (no onions, garlic or fresh ginger) definitely no tomatoes. I'll append my recipe if you are interested.

Instead of attaching it here Lapis, why not send it to me? I will add it to the main site. Pictures are always helpful :-)!

I think I'll kick off with a saag, but would love to have a go of the

Rogan Josh (Pandit version) so would appreciate the recipe Lapis!

Cheers everyone.

Pandit (Kashmiri Hindu) version of rogan josh

Use neck of lamb for best results, kept on the bone. (I have used rack of lamb on occassions, and although it looked wonderful, it wasn't quite as good).

neck of lamb for four, keep on the bone, if you want it off the bone, do it at the end of cooking, its works better that way, and is what I do.

Enough oil for frying, add lamb to the oil, cook on medium heat.

Add hing (asafoetida) by sprinkling over the cooking meat. Sprinkle it on all surfaces. I use the compounded kind.

Add freshly ground fennel (NOT aniseed), ginger powder (NOT fresh root ginger) coriander powder, all about 2 teaspoons of each, a teaspoonful of freshly ground black pepper and half a teaspoon of garam masala (homemade from green cardamom, cassia bark, cloves and mace) coarsely ground. Make into a paste with a little water.

Macerate two red sweet peppers with oil, and add dry red chillies to your own level of heat.

After the lamb has browned a little, add the spices until the water has been driven off, then add the pepper liquor, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring all the time.

Now add full fat yoghurt (about a five oz carton, or a little more), stirring to combine, until it has been accepted by the mix.

Cover the pan with two layers of kitchen foil, and a well fitting lid, as if you were making rice by the absorption method. Cook on low heat for about an hour and a half to two hours, keeping an eye on the temperature, it should be on a very low simmer, as rogan josh is a type of korma. If things look as though they are sticking, add a little water, and place a dry frying pan underneath the cooking pot, to dispense some of the heat. Alternatively, cook in a low oven (say 120?C).

Shake the pan from time to time, so that the meat can brown on all sides.

About ten minutes from serving, add a little saffron to some boiling water, let it steep for a few minutes, then add to the pan, and recover (the pan should be well covered throughout cooking).

You should end up with a dish of very tender lamb, a lot of fat/oil and a layer of debris from the other ingredients. This is not a dish with gravy, it is usually eaten with bread or rice, which are used to mop up the goo. Add salt to taste, if you want.

Do not deviate from the recipe. On no account add onions, garlic, fresh root ginger, tomatoes, coconut or fruit of any kind. This is not a starting point recipe, it is a fait accompli and has taken me several years to perfect.

It looks nice, my husband loves Kashmiri dishes, so I will make it soon. I have printed it out, will try it just as soon as I get the neck of lamb.

Thanks Lapis

Mamta

Hi everyone.

The rogan josh recipe looks interesting - I have seen recipes for this style of dish before but never made one. Perhaps that's why I don't quite understand the instructions about the peppers and chilis. Sorry to be a bit thick.

The instruction says 'Macerate two red sweet peppers with oil, and add dry red chillies to your own level of heat'. Are the peppers and chilis cut up or whole? And does 'with oil' mean covered in oil? Then the next instruction is to add the spices - does this include the peppers and chilis? I guess so. And I guess the 'pepper liquor' is the oil from the maceration?

Regards,

Heather

sorry for any confusion, Heather.

The sweet pepper and chillies in oil is really a variation on just adding chillies. To get the flavour and colour of red chillies, without too much of the heat was the goal. Rogan josh should be predominantly oil/fat (the rogan) with the deep red colour of chillies/sweet peppers. The oil starts to extract the colour (and heat if chillies are used). So just macerate (liquidise, blitz, whatever) two red peppers, and add chillies to your heat requirements in vegetable oil, as little as you can get away with.

Then, once the lamb has browned a bit (no need to ensure they are deep brown, as this happens during braising) add the powdered spices with a little water to prevent burning. Once the water has been driven off, add the peppers/chillies/oil, and continue heating, to aid further extraction of colour and heat (and flavour!)

This is a braising dish (it is a type of korma) so a well fitting lid (to avoid water loss) is essential. The meat has to be kept on the bone so that some of the meat is above the liquor line, and gets brown (develops flavour). Meat in the liquor will not brown as long as there is water present, as it should be. Therefore shaking the pan from to time is necessary.

HTH

ooops!

correction,

seem to remember that lamb shoulder was better than neck for this rogan josh, it was more tender. Both should work, though.

Sorry.

Thanks for explaining Lapis. Actually I don't have an issue with using some oil, I just didn't understand the instructions! I will have to try it - my husband loves rogan josh.

Heather

I'm looking at making a mutton and spinach curry at some point now... just happened on some minced mutton while I was out shopping... the rest as they say is history...

Steve

How about making mutton kofta curry, in a spinach gravy. Add steamed and pureed (or not) spinach at step 8. It is very nice, I have made it several times. Keep the gravy clingy, not too watery.

Thanks the idea but this time I have something more sloppy in mind... great scooping up on a bed of rice type stuff.... (might not even bother with rice, just have more of the sauce...)... but they do look very good !

Steve

Thanks to Mamta for adding my recipe !

Mutton and Spinach Keema

Thats what I was craving... lol

Steve

I thought I would experiment using some stinging nettles instead of spinach in a curry and perhaps make some stinging nettle soup.

Armed with some rubber gloves I started picking them on an overgrown plot of land. Before long I was approached by a confused woman who, assuming I was from the council, asked why I had not come before and what on earth I was doing just picking the heads of the nettles and not pulling the whole plant up!

Well, you told her, didn't you? Free food, full of goodness is always good.

I know it sounds crazy but I was always told that the sting from nettles is good for you, so i never wear gloves when I'm picking them or washing and cutting them with scissors. By the time I'm done my hands are buzzing and this tends to stay until the following morning. I've got used to it now though and it doesn't bother me at all...

I'd think the stinging buzzing itching and absolute pain you get from some nettles is telling you its probably not good for you ! Well at least not jabbed directly into your skin anyway...

Steve

Nettles 'ease arthritis suffering'

Sounds like those advocates of getting stung by bees relieves the symptoms of arthritis. Some swear by it, others think the pain of being stung (or the venom being medically injected) plus the risk of anaphylactic shock outweigh the benefits of "apitherapy!"

Winton

I'm not about to say if it's right or wrong, all I know is that I am used to the sting from nettle and it doesn't bother me at all.

Well, did the nettles work in the curry?

Yes Nancy it was delicious - just take any recipe with spinach and replace with young nettles.

Mamta, yes I tried to explain the culinary and nutritional benefits of nettles but the woman remained sceptical. Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch!

Winton

Somehow I do not fancy Nettles in cooking and that "buzzing" sensation is stimulating but hinders me in doing my typing work. Last week I learnt that guinea pigs love dandelions...well you learnt something new everyday!!!!.

Lapis your kashmiri pundit lamb curry is interesting, (even though without ginger garlic :0) Kashmiris have a wide array of meat dishes, if I am correct I remember one name "wazwaan".

Cheers

Hi Rajneesh

the wazwaan is the banquet (usually wedding) rather than a dish. In a full Wazwaan there are somewhere around 36 dishes, most of them meat, but a 'short' one always contains seven specific dishes, including kormas, of which rogan josh is one, and warchwagon another, which contains more chilies that a vindaloo!

Wow!!!! Yummy.

...off to google warchwagon lol

you might be better serching mirchwagon!, sorry, typo, but one can't correct once posted.

lol...no wonder I couldnt find anything!