Lamb Curry Do Pyaza, Mamta's
Gosht Do Pyaja
Mamta Gupta
Do=two, Pyaz=onions. A do pyaza dish simply has double the usual amount of onions, roughly same amount as meat by volume, added at two occasions. It is a popular dish in UK Indian restaurants. It is gently spiced and has little or no gravy. It should be served with hot tandoori roti or chapatti. This recaipe can be used for cooking chicken, jack fruit or potato curry as well.
Edited April 2023
Ingredients
500 gm. meat - lamb. You can use mutton, beef or pork also. Pictures show 1500 gm. meat cooking.
300-350 gm. onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2-3 large cloves of garlic, crushed
2-3 tbsp. cooking oil
5-6 tbsp. thick yoghurt*
1/2 tsp. chilli powder (to taste)
2 tsp. coriander powder
1/2-1 tsp. turmeric
1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika powder for colour (optional)
4-5 green cardamoms, crushed or 1 tsp. cardamom powder
1/2 tsp. garam masala
2 tsp. salt
Instructions
Heat oil in a pan.
Fry the onions until quite brown, remove half and keep aside.
To the remaining half of the onions, add garlic and fry for a few seconds, until beginning to turn brown.
Mix all spices and salt in yoghurt in a bowl.
Add the spice-yoghurt mix to half of the onions, stir in and fry for 3-4 minutes.
Add meat and fry on high heat, until the meat is nicely brown all over.
Cover and cook on low heat until meat is tender, stirring from time to time. You can cook it in a pressure cooker in 10 minutes or leave it in a slow cooker for a few hours (6 hours on medium heat). If you feel that there is not enough water in the pressure cooker to make steam, add 1/2-1 cup of water, as necessary. For slow cooker, you need no water usually, but if it looks dry, add a little hot water
When meat is tender and if you want to have a clingy gravy, cook on high heat to dry off any excess liquid.
Add remaining half of the fried onions to the meat and stir them in.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with hot Tandoori Rotis or Chapattis or Nans.
Notes
You can add 2 tbs. dry methi leaves or kasoori methi (fenugreek) to the fried onions, before you add the meat.
*Tips for cooking with yoghurt:
Always use full fat yoghurt, if possible. Skimmed milk yoghurt sometimes curdles during cooking. If you wish to use low fat yoghurt, add 1 heaped teaspoon of plain or corn flour per cup of yoghurt.
Make sure that the dish you are cooking is at room temperature. If yoghurt is cooked straight from the fridge, it may curdle.
When adding yoghurt during cooking, take out a few tablespoons of the hot food in a bowl, mix yoghurt, warming it a bit and then stir it back into the hot dish.
Substitute sour cream for yoghurt, using only half the amount.
