Hi Mamta,

I had a quick question. Whenever I make goat or lamb curry, my meat is always tough. I cannot tell if I am cooking it too long or too short.

For cubed pieces of lamb or goat leg, how long should i cook the curry for? How about cubed pieces of lamb or goat shoulder, how long should I cook for to achieve tender curry?

Thank you so much!

Farhana

Not sure where you are asking this question from Farhana, but here in UK, goat/mutton meat is often older, tougher lamb. Since I always use leg or shoulder of lamb, I don't have this problem. However, there are many ways of making meat tender;

1. Marinate it for a few hours or overnight.

2. Cook in a pressure cooker. Exact time will depend on the amount you are cooking and quality of meat. You can learn this by trial and error. Say cook for 10 minutes, cool and open pressure cooker, check and then give it another 5 minutes under pressure, if needed.

3. Slow cook in a slow cooker or an oven, like a casserole.

4. Add meat tenderiser. In India, it is traditionally flesh of a raw papaya, grated or pur?ed, added to marinade.

I am going to post your question on my Forum, you may get other ideas/suggestions from some experienced cooks that visit there.

Mamta

I have always found the quality of the meat decides the outcome. I have a very good butcher who sources his lamb or mutton from local farmers, so I know the quality of the meat. Lamb needs long slow cooking to ensure the end result is tender and I agree with Mamta, marination will help. However I did buy some Goat in Goa once to make a meal for some friends, I could have cooked it for a week and it would still not have been tender, so make sure you know where your meat has come from.

LOL Wilson....are you sure it was GOAT???? Could have been the eighbours dead donkey LOL.

And yes, agree with the slow cooker for lamb. 8 or so hours does wonders for the saag lamb I do.

Cheers

Steve

Hi,

I need to have my meat at a stage where it just breaks up in my without having to chew it.

I follow my favourite recipes up to the point where it says, roughly 'then add all the other ingredients'.

Here, I add 2 cupfuls of water per pound of meat, reducing this on a sliding scale if you're cooking more meet than this. You need to end up with a well cooked meat irrespective of the amount of 'gravy'. Them, strain the meat off, reduce the 'gravy' to a consistency you prefer, reassamble and serve.

This won't faithfully replicate your favourite recipes, but it will give a meal that is damn well a very good enough substitute!

Hope this prompts you to have some great ideas!

Regards,

Martin

When I used to work in a small hospital in East London more than 40 years ago, my Pakistani Registrar used to cook a big pot of mutton curry very similar to this every week-end and all of us were invited to eat it. It was deliciously tender :-)