Living On Food

Lamb Curry

 

Ingredients:
• carrots, maybe 2 cups worth, cut into chunks
• 3 red potatoes, cut into chunks
• 1 to 2 quarts water
• Caramelized onions and garlic (maybe 1/2 cup)
• large eggplant, chopped into small cubes
• ginger, maybe 1/4 cup, peeled and finely chopped
• tomato sauce, one container, maybe 12 oz
• lamb, a little over a pound, cut into small chunks
• one red bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• sherry, 1/8 to 1/4 cup
• soy sauce, 1/8 to 1/4 cup
• fresh mint, several stalks, 1/8 to 1/4 cup loosely packed, chopped
• garam masala, 2 tsp
• oat flour, two handfuls, about 2/3 cups

Spice Mix:
• 1 tbs black pepper, ground
• 2 dried serranos, ground
• 5 dried red chilies, ground
• 1 tbs coriander seed, ground
• 1 tsp cumin seed, ground
• 1 tsp black mustard seed, ground
• 1/4 cup loosely packed dried curry leaves, crumbled
• 1/8 cup ground paprika
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt

This is an experiment I threw together the other day, so some of the amounts are guesses.

Directions:

First, of course, I prepped all the ingredients. Then, I started by caramelizing two onions in a fair amount of peanut oil, adding a head of garlic towards the end. At the same time, I put the water, potatoes, and carrots in a stock pot and started it heating. Once I brought that pot to a boil, I kept it simmering for the rest of the dish.

Once the onions were ready, I put most of them aside (to use in other dishes) and left about 1/2 cup's worth in the skillet. Then I added the rather aged eggplant, and cooked it until soft, and added it to the stockpot, along with the spice mix, ginger, and tomato sauce.

Then I added the lamb and red bell pepper to the skillet, fried it until the lamb was done, added the sherry and soy sauce, reduced it, then added it all to the stockpot.

Simmered the stockpot for awhile (10–20 minutes) and then added the mint and started thickening it with the oat flour. When I was happy with its consistency, I stirred in the garam masala and removed from heat.

Results and Notes:

I had a few purposes besides just dinner when I made this. One was that I wanted to use up a bunch of vegetables that were getting old. Also, lamb was on sale and I almost never cook lamb for cjo, and cjo is rather fond of lamb, so I thought I'd give it a go. And then there were a few techniques that I wanted to experiment with.

So, given all that, I was quite happy when it turned out delicious! It was a bit on the hot side, but not so hot cjo couldn't eat it, so it was a resounding success.

Ate it with bread, though it would also go great over rice.

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