Aside from my current obsession with Central American food, I love Indian-style lamb curries. Sadly our local restaurants tend to stick with chicken or prawns, and their food give me an upset tummy these days anyway 🙁
There is something quite therapeutic about having a pot of exotic smells, blipping away on the hob for hours but i don’t always have time for that – especially as it’s only really giving me one finished dish. Poor ROI 🙂
This homemade version goes in the pressure cooker for 20mins and is ready to serve, but like all stews it benefits form being reheated the next day. This is a relatively quick curry, but you do need to season the meat a few hours ahead so either start the night before or do it in the morning and it’ll be ready to cook for dinner.
Ingredients:
- 1kg Stewing lamb (you want pieces of meat with cross-sections of bone, not the super-trimmed diced leg meat)
- 2 tablespoons Garam Masala
- 2 tsp Salt
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- 1 tablespoon Coconut oil, or fat of choice
- 1 Onion, rough chopped
- 200g very ripe Tomatoes or 230g (small tin) Chopped tomato
- 2 x Green chilli, seeds removed (leave the seeds in if you like it hot)
- 5 cloves Garlic, finely grated or crushed
- 1 tablespoon Garam Masala
- 1 tsp Salt
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 30g (small supermarket packet) Coriander, leaves and stalks chopped separately
- 4 x Spring onion, thinly sliced
Method:
Toss the lamb in the garam masala and salt, and use your hands to rub the seasoning into the meat. Pop into a zip-lock bag, or a covered glass or plastic bowl, and leave in the fridge overnight or all day.
When you’re ready to cook, take the meat out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature. While that’s happening, make the sauce. Using a food processor, or heavy duty blender (plastic ones won’t be up to the job) blend the onion, tomatoes and chillies until smooth. Set aside.
Heat the coconut oil in the pressure cooker (lid off, of course) then brown the lamb in batches. When brown, set aside and remove the pot from the heat before adding the garlic. Stir well before adding the tomato and onion sauce. Put the pot back on the heat, add the garam masala, salt, coriander stems and lemon juice. Bring to the boil and put the lamb back in – stir well to coat.
Lock on the lid and increase the heat to reach high pressure. Decrease heat to low and cook for 20mins. [If you want to freeze it, now would be a good time. Thaw completely before reheating. ] Taste sauce and adjust seasoning with salt or lemon juice if required.
Before serving, sprinkle on the chopped coriander leaves and spring onions.