From james@NOSPAMthebigdark.co.uk Wed Feb 19 15:57:52 2003 Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 21:33:52 +0000 (UTC) From: James W Newsgroups: uk.food+drink.indian Subject: First post and a recipe - Lamb Masala After lurking for a couple of months, I was going to make my first post a request for help finding that elusive restaurant taste, and then thought better of it! ;-) Instead, here's a recipe for the curry I made last night, adapted from a recipe in Julie Sahni's "Classic Indian Cookery" (£20 in hardback, but definately worth it!). She specifies chicken, but I made it with a hacked up leg of lamb I got cheap in Sainsburys. Very nice it is too - tastes even better the next day! I'm looking forward to making a lot of the recipes I've seen in here recently - especially the basic sauce and madras recipe someone posted a couple of weeks back. Anyway, here's the recipe. Hope you like it, Lamb Masala (adapted from Murgh Masala in Julie Sahni, Classic Indian Cookery, ISBN 1-898697-68-x) 800g lamb, cubed 5 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil 2 medium onions, thinly sliced 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 1/2 tbsp ginger, grated 1 cinnamon stick 4 green cardamom pods 2 tsp turmeric 1 tsp cayenne 1/2 a 400g tin of plum tomatoes 2 tsp salt 250 ml boiling water 2 tsp roasted cumin seeds 1 tsp garam masala 1 tsp fenugreek leaves 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves 1) Heat 2 tbsp ghee or oil in a large pan, and fry the lamb cubes to seal them. Remove from pan and keep aside. 2) Add remaining ghee to pan, and when hot add onions. Fry, stirring often until a deep golden colour (around 20 mins). 3) Add ginger and onion and keep frying, stirring constantly for a further 5 minutes. 4) Add cardamom pods and cinnamon stick, and fry for a couple of minutes until the pods puff up. 5) Add turmeric and cayenne, and stir quickly for 20 seconds. 6) Add tomatoes (and some of the juice from the can), water, salt and lamb to pan. 7) Bring up to a gentle simmer, cover the pan, and then cook until lamb is cooked through, and the sauce has thickened (at least half an hour). If the sauce is too thick, add a little water. 8) Stir in cumin, garam masala, and methi. Check salt, and scatter coriander leaf on top before serving. Enjoy! James W