Without further ado, here´s the recipe for the beautiful curry we made recently when Best Buddy came to stay recently.
We adapted the recipe (just a little) from one in Anjum Anand´s book Indian Food Made Easy. She uses lamb, we used goat. We served it with roti, plain boiled basmati rice, tarka dhal, and poppadums. In the excitement I forgot to make a cooling raita to accompany it. As it turned out, the dish was not hot at all (I would add more chili next time, but that is just personal taste). However, this did allow all the beautiful and individual spice flavours to shine through.
Leftovers were to be for me, me, me. Unfortunately Big Man got in on the act and decided that it was really rather a fabulous tasting dish, so they ended up being for us, us us. This time without poppadums or roti, but with raita. Recipes for the tarka dhal, spinach and roti to follow soon.
Ingredients (the recipe says it serves 6-8 but we thought it was for 4, even with all the accompanying dishes we made)
- 25g fresh ginger, peeled
- 10 large cloves of garlic, peeled (to weigh about 30g)
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 each black and green cardamom pods (we used all green)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 800g lamb cubes with bone in (I used goat with boneless meat from the leg and ribs, chopped into small pieces)
- 1-2 whole green chilies (the recipe says optional – we used 1 but I would use 2 or 3 next time)
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp garam masala (we used a garam masala spice mix made for me which we then ground)
- Salt, to taste (we found it needed quite a lot)
- 4 medium tomatoes, puréed (we used conserva)
- 500ml water
- Chopped coriander to stir in when dish is cooked
Make a paste of the ginger and garlic, adding a little water to help blend.
Heat the oil in a large non stick pan or pot. Add the whole cardamom pods and bay and stir into the warm oil before adding the onion. Fry until the onion starts to brown, then add the lamb and stir until the meat is sealed. Now add the ginger and garlic paste, the spices and a little salt (you can adjust the salt at the end of cooking). Cook for a few minutes until the pan is dry.
Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil then simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Add the water, bring back to a boil then simmer (covered) for about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally. We removed the lid for the last 5 minutes as there was a lot of liquid. When cooked, taste and adjust seasoning and stir in the coriander.
To make a simple raita mix together about 2 tablespoons of finely chopped mint, a finely chopped (small) red or white onion, a finely chopped piece of peeled cucumber (about 10cm long), 2 tbs lemon juice, a good pinch of salt and half a cup of creamy natural yogurt.
Chica Andaluza 