A fruity lamb and chick pea curry
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| The chick peas and veg, frying up |
I love a good curry, and I love lamb.
It wasn’t my favourite meat when I was
growing up, but I’ve come to really enjoy it.
Chops, cutlets, real kebabs (note to self, must do a recipe for koftas next time I see some cheap minced lamb...) My
curry tastes have also changed over the years - from the mild, soupy comforts
of chicken tikka masala, I now prefer something a little more authentic, and
hot.
Cheap lamb. Note - does not contain any farmers
Ingredients
- Our budget lamb chunks. These will need some long slow cooking.
- Onions. Always good in curries.
- Garlic.
- A chilli. What, did you expect me not to put some heat in? Plus the fruitiness of a chilli *does* make a difference to the overall flavour.
- Today’s larder star – a tin of chick peas. Another Indian recipe I’m fond of that’s cheap and tasty is dhal, which uses lentils. But we’ll go with chick peas today.
- Aubergine. Just happened to have one in the fridge, and they take very well to slow cooking as they do to frying.
- 1 mandarin orange. I was almost going to go for a Moroccan tagine today, but I thought I'd cross over and add the fruit to the curry anyway.
- Natural yoghurt. Normally a lot of curries are tomato based, or very dry. I’ve found yoghurt, if cooked right, is easily as tasty, and there are quite a few recipes for yoghurt chicken online as well.
- Spice mix:
- Curry Powder.
- Ideally we want a little cumin and some garam masala, but this budget pack of curry powder will suffice. It’s a little salty mind, so go easy on the NaCl this time. You should always season your food, but always taste budget ingredients and foods first, as they are already quite salty.
- White pepper. I heard a radio documentary about white pepper many years ago, explaining that it was this ingredient, prized in Indian cuisine, where the heat and kick in traditional South Asian food comes from. Remarkably cheap as well, but beware, it’s like black pepper, but turned up to 11...
- Let's add some black pepper too, just for contrast. Ground fairly coarsely.
- Cinnamon. I happened to have a stick in the cupboard and thought "If we're using oranges and almost making a tagine, may as well add this Moroccan staple"
Method
- First of all, let’s dry fry our spice mix in a hot pan for a minute – that’s two heaped tbsp curry powder, one tsp each of white and black pepper ,and our cinnamon stick. Once fragrant, but not burnt...
- Add a tablespoon of oil, and add our meat, chopped onions, chopped and de-seeded chilli, and garlic, and cook until the meat is browned, and the onions are starting to caramelise. Say 5-10 minutes.
- Now transfer the meat, onions, chilli, garlic, cinnamon stick, and aubergine, to a slow cooker, or another pan if you have one, and add some of the mandarin orange segments, along with a little of the zest as well.
- Time to make the chick pea curry sauce - Add them to the pan, along with a little of the liquid from the tin. Stir and taste, you may want a little more curry powder.
- Add the yoghurt and cover your pan. Let the chick pea curry sauce and the lamb and veg do their thing for a few hours on a low heat.
- Finally when ready to serve, add 1 more tablespoon of natural yoghurt to the pan to thicken the sauce, take a serving of the chick pea curry sauce, and a serving of the slow-cooked lamb and veg, and add a bit of coriander to finish.
*munch*
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| The beginnings of our slow cooked lamb curry |
Wow! Long slow
cooking has brought the best out of the budget lamb, and the punch of the white
pepper and chilli gives this a real kick.
The aubergine has become soft and melty, but the chick peas retain a bit of texture. The lamb is super fall-apart tender, and the fruit has turned into a nice tangy mush. The cinnamon comes through too.
One thing I would change is maybe blending or mashing the tinned chick
peas a little, to make the sauce thicker.
Delicious, if I do say so myself.
