Lamb and Tomato Curry

-
The first of two curry recipes invented yesterday, trying to combine my favourite parts of take-away curries into something reasonably healthy and stronger flavoured. Authenticity and originality not guaranteed.

#1 : Lamb and Tomato

This one combines rogan josh (lamb, tomato, cardamon, garlic) with dhansak (cumin, lentils). This is not a hot curry, and the initially flavour is sweet from the meat, onions and tomato - but it has a pleasant kick.

I made this from left-over roast lamb, but in the past I have made a similar curry with lamb precooked in water with garlic cloves - boil for ~15 minutes.

Ingredients
  • 500 g Cooked Lamb
  • 1 Onion
  • 4 or 5 Tomatoes
  • 1 or 2 handfuls of Red Lentils
  • 1 tsp Coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp Cumin seeds
  • 1 tbsp Garam Masala
  • 1 tsp ground Ginger
  • ½ - 1 tsp ground Cayenne Pepper (depending on how hot you want it)
  • 4 Cardamon Pods (crushed a little)
Method
  1. Slice the onion and fry in plenty of oil (rapeseed works well) for ~20 minutes on a low heat. The aim is to remove moisture and soften the onion without generating any caramel.
  2. Grind the seeds and mix with the ground spices. Add to the onions and cook the spices for 2-3 minutes. Add boiling water slowly, bring the mixture together as a thick sauce. Add the cardamon pods.
  3. Chop the meat into appropriate size pieces and quarter the tomatoes. Add to the sauce along with the lentils. Add water if required to cover the additions, bring back to a simmer and leave for ~1 hour.
  4. Serve, or preferentially, allow to cool and freeze for another day. The flavour is improved given the longer time in the sauce.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summery Salmon

-
Image
This is probably the first "summery" meal I've cooked this year. It's well and truly time the casserole dishes were left in the cupboard and the salad bowl was getting more use, but the weather hasn't exactly been normal. This is a quick and easy salmon dish for one - my wife (less fish-loving) had some chilli con carne from the freezer. 1 salmon fillet (or similar) 1 courgette 1 pepper 2 tomatoes or handful of cherry tomatoes balsamic vinegar Roughly chop the courgette, pepper and tomatoes (if using large, or leave whole if cherry). Add to a roasting dish, toss with oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast for 40 mins on 170°C (fan). 10 minutes before the veg is done, heat a little oil in an oven safe frying pan, place the salmon skin side down in the pan. Turn off the heat, allow approximately 1 minute and transfer the pan to the oven. Drizzle the veg with balsamic vinegar. Serve, pouring the balsamic glaze from the roast veggie...
Read more

Autumn Sausage Surprise

-
Autumn is Apples. So, with a little inspiration from the River Cottage Everyday series I created this. The surprise is the slightly wacky ingredient. Ingredients 4 free-range Pork Sausages 1 Onion 2 large Carrots 1 Apple 1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar 100 mL Ginger Beer Method Peel or scrub the carrots, slice into batons, drizzle with oil and a generous grinding of black pepper. Put in an oven at 180 °C to cook for 1 hour. Lightly fry the sausages, just to add colour, for 1-2 minutes. Allow a little of the pork fat to colllect in the frying pan. Add to the carrots when there is 30 minutes of cooking time remaining. Peel, core and cut the apple into 8 pieces. Gently fry these in the residual pork fat until the sides have coloured. This will give them some protection against turning to pulp in the oven and also give them a meaty flavour. Add to the carrots and sausages 10-15 minutes before serving. Finally, fry the sliced onion in any residual pork fat, on a medium heat. Allow the onion to colo...
Read more