Saturday Night Is Curry Night

Alex is busy in the kitchen cooking for the St. George's Day pudding spectacular, so it falls to me to write about last night's curry. There will be more about the pudding later but last night we made a lamb korma pilaf from Camellia Panjabi's Excellent book 50 Greatest curries of India.

We (well I) had been hankering for a curry for a few days and it was agreed that Saturday night was the ideal time, so a trip to Kirkgate Market in Leeds secured some cheap local lamb shoulder from one of the many excellent butchers. We had most of the other ingredients in our cupboards but secured some plump green chillies from Wing Lee Hong's asian supermarket on Vicar Lane.

The recipe is a bit complicated and time consuming but well worth it.

1. Wash some basmati rice and leave it to soak.
2. Fry 1 1/2 large onions until golden brown. Add chopped ginger, 2 large green chillies, 3 cloves of garlic, 5 cardomoms, a cinnamon stick and some cloves and fry for 2-3 minutes.
3. A some cubed lamb and fry for 15 minutes, stirring continuously.
4. Add one tablespoon of coriander powder and stir for 2 minutes before adding 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon of cumin powder, 1 1/2 teaspoons of chilli powder, 1 teaspoon of ground mace, 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg powder and 65 ml of water. Simmer for two minutes.
5. Whip up 100 ml of greek yoghurt and add to the pot.
6. Chop 2 tomatoes and add to the pot with 1 teaspoon of salt. Stir and cook with a lid on until the lamb looks done. Check regurlarly to ensure it has not dried out, adding more water if it looks like it's needed.

7. Drain and wash the rice. Put it into a pan with the same volume of boiling water ad two bay leaves. Bring to the boil and add 1 teaspoon of oil, one teaspoon of salt and a little turmeric for colour. When the water is absorbed, remove from the heat and drain.
8. Layer half the rice in an oven proof dish, followed by all the meat and then the rest of the rice.
9. Cook in a pre-heated oven on 160°C for 20 minutes and serve.

Well, it was worth all the effort and was very tasty served with some ice cold beers. The meat was a little dry so next time I would add a lot more water to ensure that there was more sauce. I might marinade the meat in the yoghurt and spices before cooking to make it more tender, too.


All in all, another triumph for Camellia Panjabi

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