Freshly ground spices give this recipe a really wonderful flavour. Cut your lamb into cubes, you can use a leg of lamb with bones taken out. Start by marinating teh lamb with salt, pepper, chilli powder and white vinegar. Mix everything really well.
Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight. The longer you marinate the tender your lambs will be. Heat up all the whole spices on low heat for about a minute then set aside to cool. Put teh spices in a grinder and grind to a powder. Heat up a pot and add a few tablespoons of oil then add th whole spices, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cardamom and cloves the stir for 30 seconds until you can smell the spices.
Add chopped onions and green chillies, salt teh sautee until golden brown then adds the ginger-garlic paste and cook for a few minutes. Add ground turmeric then and chopped tomatoes, salt and then the lamb. Stir really well then the ground masala and mix in.
Whether you are using a pressure cooker or on the stove, you don’t have to add too much water since the meat will be tender after marinating. On a pressure cooker, you can add one and a half cups of water and cooking time should be generally 30 minutes or less. On the stovetop, cover your pot and cook until the lamb is tender if you need to add more water during cooking, make sure you add boiled water.
When cooked, your lamb should be nice, thick gravy perfects to serve over rice or with any kind of bread.
Ingredients;
Marinate in a bowl;
- 1.5 kg/ 3.5 lbs Lamb Boneless, Cubed
- 1 tsp Coarse Salt
- 1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Red Chili Powder
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1.5 tbsp White Vinegar
Spices to Toast and Grind;
- 1 Star Anise
- 1 Cinnamon Stick
- 2 tsp Black Peppercorns Use more if you like it spicy
- 4 Cardamom Pods
- 9 Cloves
- 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1 tsp Fennel Seeds
- 2 tbsp Coriander Seeds
To Cook;
- Vegetable Oil As needed
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 1 small piece Cinnamon Stick
- 3 Cardamom Pods
- 4 Cloves
- 450 grams/ 1lb Yellow Onion
- 4 Green Chiles slit Use more if you like it spicy
- 3-inch piece Fresh Ginger
- 15 Garlic cloves
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 2 medium Tomatoes
Instructions;
- In a large bowl, mix the lamb with all the marinade ingredients.
- It’s best to use your hands so you can massage all the spices into the meat.
- Cover this and marinate in the fridge for at least one hour or overnight. The longer you marinate, the more tender the meat will be.
- Toast spices over low heat for a minute or two until you smell it
- Cool toasted spices and grind to a powder
- Grind ginger and garlic to a paste using a blender or food processor
- Heat up a pot or pressure cooker and add the 4 spices under “to cook” section. Stir for 30 seconds and add chopped onion and green chiles
- Sautee until golden brown. Add ginger-garlic paste and cook for 2 minutes
- Add 1/2 tsp ground turmeric and cook 30 seconds. Add the chopped tomatoes, 1 tsp salt and saute for a minute.
- Add the marinated lamb and stir well. Add the ground spices and mix well.
- Add enough water to cook the lamb, at least one cup. Cover and cook until lamb is tender.
- Uncover and boil away liquid if you need to (especially if using a pressure cooker)
- Here is the lamb in a nice thick gravy. It’s medium spicy. If you like it very spicy, add more green chiles and black pepper.
- This curry is perfect served over rice or with any kind of bread.
