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LAMB-CORIANDER - A popular North Indian lamb dish with cori-
ander
This is a family variation on a popular North Indian dish. I
cook it whenever I could get hold of fresh coriander, which
in Edinburgh is seldom.
I don't know its authentic Indian name. We simply call it
``dhana lamb'' as that's how its always cooked at home.
Dhana means ``coriander'' in Gujarati.
700 g stewing lamb, trimmed of fat and diced
500 ml full fat natural yogurt
6 garlic cloves, crushed
20 ml ground coriander
2 lila murcha, (fresh green chilli peppers), crushed
20 ml paprika
15-20 ml salt
60 ml cooking oil (mustard oil is best)
2 medium onions (or more to taste)
15 ml cummin seeds
5 ml turmeric powder
10 ml black mustard seed
20 g ginger, coarsely crushed
10 ml red chilli powder (also called cayenne pepper or
lal mirch)
100 g fresh coriander
(1) Dice the meat into bite-size cubes, and soak in
warm water for 2-3 minutes.
(2) Mix the paprika, ground coriander, salt, crushed
garlic, and crushed green chillies with yogurt.
Drain the lamb and add to the yogurt marinade.
(3) Leave to marinate for at least six hours. Ideally
it should marinate in the refrigerator for 24
hours.
(4) Dice the onions into thin semi-circles. In a large
saucepan or a generous frying-pan, heat the cook-
ing oil over a high flame. Add the onions when
the oil is hot enough to ``steam''. Reduce the
heat to medium and stir occasionally. Fry the
onions until they change colour to a deep
red/brown. This should take 10 to 15 minutes.
(5) At this point add the black mustard seeds and stir
a few times. Then add the ginger, cummin seeds,
red chillies and turmeric powder. Increase the
heat and fry this ``masala'' for a couple of
minutes.
(6) Add the marinated lamb to the masala and mix well.
(7) At this point you have two options, either to cook
the meat on the stove or to bake it. Stovetop
cooking takes less time but requires fairly con-
stant stirring. It should be cooked in a covered
saucepan on a low to medium flame for about 45
minutes. Add water if the sauce gets too dry and
begins to stick. For baking, transfer it to an
ovenproof casserole, cover it, and bake for 11/2
hours at 95 deg. C. Check occasionally, though
you are unlikely to need to add any water to the
sauce.
(8) Finally, prepare and wash the fresh coriander in
cold water. Only the leaves and the tender stems
should be retained. Chop coarsely and mix well
just before serving. If you don't have any fresh
coriander, then mix in 15 ml of coriander powder.
Serve with well buttered (boiled) rice or pita
bread, and fresh salad.
Take care not to burn the onions and don't overcook the
masala just before mixing in the marinated meat.
I think the dish tastes a lot better if it is baked. It's
even better if cooked for a longer period at a lower tem-
perature.
Difficulty: easy to moderate. Time: 15 minutes preparation,
1 day marinating, 21/2 hours cooking. Precision: approxi-
mate measurement OK.
Mukesh J Patel
University of Edinburgh, Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, Scotland
seismo!ukc!cstvax!epistemi!mukesh
mukesh@uk.ac.ed.epistemi
| Last modified: 9 May 2006 | 80 hits in May 2012 |
