Lamb Curry

I bought a cute little lamb from a co-worker whose husband raises them. And then the slaughterhouse did what they do and I have a freezer full of it. One of the best things to do with it is to spice the crap out of it and make some tasty Indian food. This recipe is particularly nice because you don't need to sear the meat first. It's a pretty simple dish. I adapted the recipe from Julie Sahni's rogani gosht in her book Classic Indian Cookery.

Spices

Ginger - about a 2" piece, skin removed

Garlic - 5 cloves or more to suit you

Black Cumin - 1 teaspoon (tsp)

Cumin - 1 tablespoon (TB)

Coriander - 2 tsp

Cardamom - 1/2 tsp

Black Pepper - 1 tsp

Red Pepper - 1 tsp to 1 TB depending on how hot you want it.

Turmeric - 2 tsp

Fenugreek Leaves - 1 TB

All of these spices can be adjusted to whatever you feel like. Add different ones, leave out some, make it your own.

Sauce

Skin the onions and cut them into quarters and toss them into a blender. Add 1 cup of yogurt and dump in all of your spices. If the mixture has trouble getting ground up in the blender just add a little water or milk to get it going.

Notes

Some of my spices I just left whole. I knew this particular blender would pulverize them and make a smooth blend of it all.

I used lamb cuts from the leg. I rarely cook a whole leg of lamb so I had the butchers cut the legs into 3/4" steaks. I used about 2.5 pounds. Cut the meat up in to 1 to 2 inch pieces and toss them into your cooking vessel with a tablespoon of salt.

Add the sauce from the blender to the meat in the pot and add a cup of cream. Mix all of that together and turn on the heat. Bring it up to a simmer and then cover and cook covered on low to medium-low for 1 1/2 hours. Give it a stir occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom.

While your meat is cooking away on the stovetop grab some red or gold potatoes (1 1/2 to 2 pounds total) and cut them into quarters. I like the smaller potatoes for this. Peel them if you wish, I don't.

When you reach the end of the 1 1/2 hours of cooking add the potatoes and cook for another 30 to 45 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

While your curry is cooking away and making your house smell like an Indian street bazaar you should probably make basmati rice and dice up some cilantro to top your dish. Store bought naan is a lovely thing to keep around too.

Serve it up on the rice with some hot, buttered naan and sprinkle with cilantro. It doesn't get much better. Tender chunks of lamb in a thick and flavorful sauce.

For those that are weird about eating lamb you can substitute whatever you like. If you use chicken though you'll want to cook the sauce separately for a while to reduce down and mix the flavors and then add your chicken later so you don't end up with chewy hockey pucks in your curry.