Modus Curry-andi...

 

Pictured is a bowl of that leftover lamb curry I made last night. I promised the recipe, so here's the first draft:

Ingredients

1 large onion, finely chopped

Initial Dry Masala:

1/3 teaspoon asafoetida

1 teaspoon black/brown mustard seeds

2 Indian bay leaves (Indian bay - ordinary bay is definitely not a substitute, leave it out if you can't get it)

Second Dry Masala:

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon hot chilli powder

Wet Masala:

1 teaspoon coriander seed

1/2 teaspoon cumin seed

4 green cardamoms

1/2 dozen dried Kashmiri chillis (essential - they are quite mildly spiced, but give colour and fragrance like nowt else)

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

Toast all the above dry ingredients in a dry frying pan and grind to a fine powder (be careful not to overdo the toasting, as the spices - particularly the fenugreek - will turn bitter) and place into a mortar ready to grind in the wet ingredients below:

a glug of rapeseed oil to loosen the mixture

1 mild green chilli (those thumb-sized little porkers that come in mixed packets are fine), finely chopped

1 teaspoon tomato purée

1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Cubed meat (in this case garlic roast lamb leftovers): if cooking from fresh, you'll obviously have to increase the cooking time to suit. However, even with pre-cooked meat, the sauce needs a proper cook-out to bring out the oils from the spices.

3 smallish, ripe tomatoes

2 small, hot green chillis, split

small splash of water to loosen the sauce a little

sea salt to taste

Method:

First prepare the three masalas in advance and set aside. You could probably manage this well within the cooking time of the onions - they do take an awful lot longer to cook out than virtually any recipe will quote you (five minutes is the usual nonsense) - you'll either burn the onions, or they won't develop any colour or flavour in that short time - and even longer than is normal with this method: anything up to forty-five minutes; but I promise you the results make it worthwhile.

 

Right. Heat some oil of choice - not olive, it won't taste right - in a heavy-based pan or casserole, having got the pan hot, then turned down to medium. Throw in the asafoetida, mustard seeds and bay leaves. When you start getting machine-gunned by the popping mustard seeds, slide in the chopped onion, stirring until it's all coated with the spiced oil. Turn the heat down to medium low and cover the pot, checking the - slooow - browning process and stirring every five minutes or so, until the onions have reduced and taken on a golden brown colour in the process: a good pinch of sea salt stirred in will encourage this, if they're reluctant to colour. The key sense to use, though, is smell: the onions should lose that 'oniony' rawness and should smell sweet, just on the edge of caramelization. Again this will require patience and vigilance on the cook's part.

So far, so good. Now add the second dry masala and fry it out with the lid off the pan, until the oil starts to separate from the spice and onion mix - five minutes or so - and then add the meat, again frying and stirring until the oil and meat fat rises and separates. Now add the wet masala, stir well until everything is amalgamated, and re-cover the pan - with this cooked lamb, I gave it about half an hour to get all the flavour going, but with fresh it would be double that at least, and would require any excess fat skimming off from time to time. Now add the chopped tomatoes and the two hot, green chillis, lower the heat and cover again until everything comes together, using your eyes, nose and taste-buds to determine when ready. Season with sea salt to taste. The curry should be semi-dry, with the sauce clinging to the meat, so easy on the water!

 

A good tip: turn the pot off and let the whole thing cool down to eating temperature; don't eat it too hot, the flavour will be better and the meat will relax. BTW, All the ingredients are readily available these days, either from physical shops in most places, or of course, online...