Lamb curry

[Polymathic]

¼ cup of oil
1kg lamb (leg of lamb on the bone cubed)
2 cinnamon sticks and 2 bay leaves
1 large onion diced
1½ tablespoon of masala
1 tablespoon of chilli powder
½ teaspoon jeera powder
½ teaspoon dhania powder
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 tablespoon of crushed ginger and garlic
Curry leaves
2 tomatoes diced
3 medium potatoes cut in half
Salt
Boiling water

Add oil to pot, cinnamon sticks and bay leaves, then onion and fry till brown. Lower heat. Add masala and other powders, mix, don't let it burn. Add tomatoes, tumeric, curry leaves and ginger and garlic. Cook on low till oil surfaces and then add in lamb. Mix well and leave to cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes. Can add a little water if needed. After 15 minutes, add potatoes, salt, and water and continue to cook on medium until potatoes are cooked through and lamb is tender. About 45 minutes in total. I usually use more masala, but you wanted a mild curry. Masala is for flavour and chilli powder is for heat and colour so add according to how you like it.
View attachment 1355276

There's gravy and there's meat floating in oil, that looks more like the latter.

Always thought mutton was for curries, low and slow.

Exactly, lamb curry isn't in the same ball park as mutton curry. Good quality has a natural sweetness which lamb lacks, which is complimented by the fruity notes from the chilli powder.

I go in really heavy with a Kashmiri Chilli Powder, 3 or 4 really heaped teaspoons probably around to 10 to 12 level teaspoons (possibly more)

You can probably substitute a large amount of the chilli powder for paprika (unsmoked) if you don't have a high spice tolerance

 

[W@P]

I use lamb potjie meat or shanks cut into pieces or neck.
Brown the meat first, then i fry some of this with the onions.

Then i add the meat back into the pot. Add some curry spice.
And water and let coock till fall of the bone.
Along the way i add a tin of sliced peaches with its juice to give it a bit of a sweet taste.
Works a treat every time.

 

[D3nz]

Always thought mutton was for curries, low and slow.

Either lamb or mutton is good in a curry. You get different grades of mutton. B grade usually cooks within 90 minutes. It's the C grade that takes about 3 hours.

 

[Grant]

Right.
So I think I'm going to try both D3nz & WAslayer's recipes - side by side.
Both share many ingredients so it's no big deal.

WAslayer's seems more Malaysian.
D3nz seems more Indian

 

[RiaX]

No no let uncle riax teach you guys the proper way.

So the first step to a good curry is the pot. You need a heavy duty thick based pot. Indian people use the AMC brand for their curries. You cannot use these aluminum thin based pots. That is the first step get the pot right.

The next step is the meat. Use lamb or AB mutton on the bone leg pieces. Cut it into cubes the more marrow bones the better. So go to the butcher and tell them you want leg cut for curry and they will do it for you you just trim the excess fat and cube it into nice chunky pieces if necessary (lamb shoulder will also work). To the meat add your ginger garlic paste. Depending on the quantity you have to adjust usually around 2 tablespoons. This helps get rid of that meat smell. If you bad at gauging salt you can salt it now too otherwise salt goes in the cooking process.

So in the proper pot. Use sunflower oil or ghee and use enough to coat the pot. Not a tablespoon otherwise curry will be dry. If you worried about health then dont make mutton curry. Lol. To this oil you going to fry cumin (jeera), fennel (somph) seeds usually a flat teaspoon of each this quantity will be adjusted to your taste I don't measure my ingredients I go by feel and sight. Do not flood the pot with whole spices you are making curry not breyani. The only other whole spice to use is a cinnamon stick and a big bay leaf.

Now once that's done add your diced onion usually one big one. Now let's explain the onion the onion will be the gravy base and will melt away in the pot so you going to add it in two stages. 80% of the onion in the start and the balance with the tomato later to thicken the gravy. Now do not fry the onion on high heat you don't want caramelized onion. You going to do at it till its translucent. This point you can vary your curry to your tastes. You can put your fresh chillies or cardamom and curry leaves if you want all optional. Make sure you just slit the chillies and add them whole do not dice it (at the start with the onion nit after its cooked).

So a big mistake people make is add masalas to the onions. Masala only needs 2 to 4 minutes to cook but the meat can go for up to an hour. So the meat ("marinated" with ginger garlic) goes in next. Keep a kettle of boiled water by you. Now you going to turn up your heat and fry the lamb until the oil comes out of the meat and its soft. You going to add water as needed to help cook the lamb so it gets soft.make sure you deglaze the pot everytime you add water. It should total about 2 cups or so depending on the meat and the meat should cook for about 45min to an hour but your end point is soft. So stir add water theb close the pot to help steam and repeat as many times as needed. Add your salt if you didn't do it earlier.

Now when the lamb is soft this is when you add your masala. Now let's talk about masalas. The reason you don't flood the pot with whole spices is because the masala comes with all these spices ground in it. So you mix 2 masalas. One will be kashmiri and the other will be a hot masala you ask them at the spice shop and they will guide you. If you like it hot add more hot masala if you like it mild add more kashmiri. So I generally do 4 heaped teaspoons kashmiri and 2 to 3 heaped teaspoons of hot masala. In total you should use about 3 tablespoons of masala. You can add turmeric now if you want it's optional there's turmeric in the masala mixes anyways. If you add turmeric about half a teaspoon will do. Now fry this out for a few minutes.

Now drop your heat to medium and you going to add your grated tomatoe and balance of onions. You only need 1 tomato grated. You do not want the skin. You not making chutney so one is enough don't use a can of tomatoes. The ideal tomato is called a jam tomato.

Now you have completed the baseline mutton curry and this is where you can vary. The standard is potatoes but you can change it for cabbage or cauliflower at this point. Your end stage is when the veg is soft and cooked.

Let's talk potatoes. You going to use what is called an up to date potato. This is a soft cooking potatoe usually cape Douglas. Peel them and cut into half. Use medium sized potatoes. Make sure the potatoes are cut more less the same size. When you an expert you can use whole potatoes. Do NOT soak the potatoes in water you want them to release the starch in the curry. Add splashes of water and cook until the potatoes are soft and are begining to break down.

Turn off the heat and top the curry with freshly chopped coriander. Leaves + stalks. Let the curry rest now. You going to let it rest for the time it takes to make your rice.

I'll do another post later for rice. Congratulations you have completed a durban style curry.

 

[maumau]

Either lamb or mutton is good in a curry. You get different grades of mutton. B grade usually cooks within 90 minutes. It's the C grade that takes about 3 hours.

Thanks, didn't know that

 

[RanzB]

Plain yoghurt enough to cover lamb
750g Lamb
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
2 teaspoons Fresh grated ginger
Can of chopped peel tomato
2 teaspoons curry powder, strength of your choice
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons coriander
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Chuck lamb in a big bowl, throw over yoghurt and add half the spices, mix through and let it stand, ideally overnight..

Brown pepper, remaining spices, garlic and ginger with olive oil in a big pot.. slowly add the lamb mixture and brown.. bring to boil add canned tomatoes to taste, don't start with the whole can.. mix through and turn down heat and simmer.. when it turns a rich brick red, it's ready to eat or whenever you feel like you can no longer wait to eat..

This isn't an Indian way to cook curry, is it Malaysian as @Grant mentioned?

I'd say @D3nz is the closest to a Durban Indian lamb curry, but for me, the best option is to use lamb shoulder, not leg. Leg is somewhat lean while shoulder has more connective tissue which breaks down during a long cook. You could also use a combination of leg and shoulder.

As usual, ignore @Polymathic.


This lady has some great traditional Durban curry recipes:

 

[RiaX]

Ok let's talk rice.

There a multiple methods to cook rice. Boil it or absorption. If you suck at cooking use the absorption method.

Basically 1 part rice 2 part water. You must wash the rice thoroughly to remove excess dust and starch. Removing the starch makes the rice nice and fluffy and not sticky. So add rice and salt and water. Start in cold water. Bring it up to the boil then drop the heat to low and cover. Allow it to cook and steam for around 12 minutes then stand a few minutes and fluff with a fork.

If you boil it you need to be experienced in cooking the rice. If you go too far you will make porridge. Most Indian people cook this way as some dishes require part cooking of rice like for breyani. When the rice is cooked you strain it. When it strains you let it strain for a good couple of minutes.

So now let's talk about types of rice dishes to make.

First is saffron rice. So which ever method you use to cook the rice you will simply add a pinch of turmeric and a pinch of saffron to your water and your rice will come out nice and yellow.

Second is savory rice where you just toss in a cup of frozen veg carrots and peas and if you want it yellow combine it with saffron rice.

Then there's braised rice. So in a separate frying pan you going to fry onion slices in ghee/butter. You going to fry it till it begins to turn brown and sweet. Then you going to top the rice with the onions and ghee and fluff.

 

[RanzB]

LOL @ Indians use swiss pots for their curries.

AMC pots are probably the #1 wedding gift for Indians. That and a copy of Indian Delights.

 

[wireddreams]

Which half of the spices don't you use on the first round ?

A clove is the whole round thing or just a piece of the whole garlic?

 

[Polymathic]

Does not matter the brand, as long as u have a heavy thick bottom pots, it will do the job. If you do not have a thick bottom pot, put a solid metal plate on the stove and then put your pot on it to cook. Slow cooking does the job well . Cooking is nothing but Chemistry. Best tasting Indian food is cooked in earthen pots.

Just to add, at the end of cooking you may add caramelized onions to enhance the flavor.

When proper mindset and good thoughts of the person gets mixed with cooking, it increases the taste. What I mean to say by this is, If a thief is cooking for you, by eating that food you will have the thought process of a thief. BE careful about who is cooking as that is most important when it comes to food that you consume.

That's like saying the best tasting European good is cooked with a cast iron pot. It's a basically meaningless statement.

Anyway the cooking methods evolve over time depending on the ingredients and cooking utensils available. People optimised their recipes for the utensils they use everyday.

For the best results for modern recipes from India one would need to cook on gas and cook with Kadai pots because that's what the recipe would be optimised with.

For local Indian home recipes it's optimised for thick based aluminium pots on electric stoves.

 

[RanzB]

What happened to good old Kama Sutra books?

Sex happens before the meal. You don't feel too horny with ring sting.

Unless you're into that kinda thing.

 

[WAslayer]

Sex happens before the meal. You don't feel too horny with ring sting.

Unless you're into that kinda thing.

A good bit of yoghurt would calm down the ring sting..

 

[Polymathic]

I feel bad for reading your name with a different accent after this thread.

I have an Indian accent and not a charou accent then it's fine

 

[Polymathic]

The reason I said Best tasting Indian food is cooked in earthen pots is due to the science behind it.

Earthen pots heats gradually and cooks the food slowly as compared to aluminium or other metallic utensils. This lets the food retain more nutritive value than f

ood prepared in other kinds of utensil. Also, meat prepared in clay pots remains juicy and tender.

Till today major temples in India cook their offering to Lord in earthen pots. Science behind earthen pots is there is less oil required for cooking, cooked food stays longer without being spoilt, clay/earth is alkaline and it helps in regulating the PH balance of the food by interacting with the acid present in the food. Additional minerals from clay gets into the food and it does wonders in adding nutritional value to the food, I mean micro nutrients. Black earthen pots are much better than the brown ones.

I recently discovered this YouTube channel. I put it on for my granny who is essentially first generation . ( Her parents came to the country when they were young children). From what she says this is exactly how life was back in her childhood.

 

[RanzB]

The reason I said Best tasting Indian food is cooked in earthen pots is due to the science behind it.

Earthen pots heats gradually and cooks the food slowly as compared to aluminium or other metallic utensils. This lets the food retain more nutritive value than food prepared in other kinds of utensil. Also, meat prepared in clay pots remains juicy and tender.

Till today major temples in India cook their offering to Lord in earthen pots. Science behind earthen pots is there is less oil required for cooking, cooked food stays longer without being spoilt, clay/earth is alkaline and it helps in regulating the PH balance of the food by interacting with the acid present in the food. Additional minerals from clay gets into the food and it does wonders in adding nutritional value to the food, I mean micro nutrients. Black earthen pots are much better than the brown ones.

When proper mindset and good thoughts of the person gets mixed with cooking, it increases the taste. What I mean to say by this is, If a thief is cooking for you, by eating that food you will have the thought process of a thief. BE careful about who is cooking as that is most important when it comes to food that you consume.

Time to lay off the bhang, bhaiya.

 

[Grant]

No no let uncle riax teach you guys the proper way.

So the first step to a good curry is the pot. You need a heavy duty thick based pot. Indian people use the AMC brand for their curries. You cannot use these aluminum thin based pots. That is the first step get the pot right.

Could I qualify for honorary Indian status with one of these?

 

[Grant]

So I qualify as honorary Indian after all.
I'll answer questions about the temperature indicator another day and time

 

[Grant]

Screw everything.
I qualify as a full Indian and all.
Because why:

An unused back shelf relegation

 

[maumau]

This isn't an Indian way to cook curry, is it Malaysian as @Grant mentioned?

I'd say @D3nz is the closest to a Durban Indian lamb curry, but for me, the best option is to use lamb shoulder, not leg. Leg is somewhat lean while shoulder has more connective tissue which breaks down during a long cook. You could also use a combination of leg and shoulder.

As usual, ignore @Polymathic.


This lady has some great traditional Durban curry recipes:

Indeed cheaper cuts containing muscle, fat, connective tissue and bone add flavour to stews.

We roast leg, shanks we do in a tagine and other cuts like neck and shoulder are for curry and stews - now with extra info from @Denz I know even better what to look for.