Oh my!! Finally, I know. My all time favourite lamb curry recipe has arrived! At last, I know quite a few people, friends and keen fans of Ramona’s Cuisine have been asking and waiting for this recipe. I feel terribly bad for not prioritising this but only time is to blame.
It just flies too quickly and I’ve had so many exciting recipes that I wanted to share …. but here it is at last, the much awaited VIC (very important curry) recipe of this wonderful lamb curry dish .
Oh, la, la!! This is a heck of a dish that anyone I know LOVES big time.
It’s been some time now since my love ? for Asian cuisine started.
I was very lucky to have an old friend that I’ve learned how to cook a lot of Sri Lankan dishes from, then, I’ve met and married my darling hubby.
Asian food! Oh my!! Have I not known about it or refuse to try I would have been loosing out big time. Thankfully, I love food and I’m always open to trying new dishes but Sri Lankan cuisine I must say it stood and still stands out for me a great deal. The simplicity and the flavours just totally blow me away.
I do enjoy my curries a great deal as you may have guessed and I must have one almost every week in order to feel complete and totally happy with my life – I’m lucky my lovely hubby cooks a nice curry every now and again for me when that very rare occurrence that I don’t fancy cooking arrises.
I love cooking a curry which I have to admit I’m not cooking it very traditionally all the way because the only aspect that I suffer with is the frying…. and…. in Asian cuisine…. frying is thing – the issue with that is that whenever eat fried and/or too oily food I do suffer greatly after .
Well, my curries have a twist. They involve NO frying and have NO added oil which is why I am saying they are super healthy on top of all that extraordinary ingredients like the turmeric, ginger, garlic, and all that seeds and curry, cumin and garam masala powders which are so amazing.
Oh yes, you may think I’ve lost the plot but I can reassure you they come out delicious and almost as authentic as a traditionally cooked one by my Sri Lankan friends or family.
Anyway, they do love it so that couldn’t be to bad after all.
I just can’t wait to go to Sri Lanka, the only issue with that is that I fear I might not want to come back home. My husband is really afraid of that 😉 reason why perhaps he is postponing it, but I will, I will go, very, very soon and I will tell you all about it when I come back mainly with a pack full with recipes. I actually can’t wait.
I must have made this curry about 10,000 times so here is the recipe folks.
Delicious and super healthy Lamb Curry
Ingredients
- 800 g lamb meat (cubed) approx 2 pounds
- 1 large onion
- 3 tbsp curry powder (for hot)
- 1 green chili (fresh- for extra hot)
- 1/2 tsp seeds (mixed)
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 8 leaves curry (fresh, frozen or dry)
- 2/3 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tbsp garam masala
- 1 can tomato (chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 pepper (freshly ground)
- 1 tsp ginger (grated)
- 1/2 lemon (its juice)
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
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Cut the washed lamb meat into chunks/pieces. I usually cut the meat into small cubes of about 1 cm sq. Add the salt, the curry powder and mix well to coat the meat. Set aside for as long as you wish but, the longer the meat marinades the better.
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Meanwhile, peel wash and chop the onion. Wash the fresh chilli, peel, crush and chop the garlic. Set aside ready for action.
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Place a cooking pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onions and a little water or oil if you wish. As you know I do not fry so I would drizzle some water just enough to help the onion cook and soften slightly. You can cover to speed up the softening by using its own steam to cook the onion.
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Add to the onion the seeds and the fresh chilli(s) cut into halves lengthwise. Cook for one minute or two until the water has run out and the onion becomes nice'n soft. All in all cook for about 3 mins.
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Add the meat which has marinated for a while (even overnight if you can - it’s amazing), add some water (aprox. 100-200ml depending on how juicy you want your curry to be) and stir. Cover and cook for about 15-20 min.
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Add the chopped tomato, the tomato paste, the crushed and chopped garlic, the curry leaves, the grated ginger, the garam masala, turmeric and cumin powders and grind some black/mixed pepper. Stir and cook for another 10-12 min covered or uncovered. I prefer uncovered so that the juices reduce slightly.
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Remove from heat, allow to cool for 2 min and give the lemon a good old squeeze making sure no pips are going into the curry as those are not pleasant to bite into.
Recipe Notes
Serve on a nice basmati or jasmine rice or with my lovely homemade flat bread and along side a beautiful dhal. Oh, absolutely delicious - there is nothing more I could say. A winner every time, any day, any time.
Trim the meat of any visible fat when cutting and preparying it for the curry.. Ideally would be to use meat that has bone on such as a lamb leg or shoulder ( although the shoulder has got less meat and more bone). I usually use lamb leg and I get the butcher to slice it. The bones give that extra delicious taste.
As you can see lamb curry is an aromatic mix of fresh ginger, spices that is super easy to prepare and have ready in no time. ... All you will need is some super healthy ingredients like turmeric, garam masala, cumin and chilli powder, some mixed seeds the rest is ingredients that you would have in the kitchen as staples.
Also, when finished, skim off any excess fat from the surface of the sauce, then you could add some coriander or chopped spinach if you fancy to make it even more fragrant and redolent.
More about the seeds mix .....
In almost all my curries (with very little exceptions) use a seed mix of cumin, fennel, mustard, fenugreek, black sesame and about 10% caraway seeds which can be bought separately in any Asian or even supermarket, a good online wholefood or street specialized on spices store. I mix these in pretty much equal quantities apart from caraway ones. Of course you can mix and match them as you wish and if there is any flavor that you don’t like, just leave it out and this is the beauty of this as you create your own best liked mix. Mix them all and store in a jar. This seed combo goes very well with any meat or vegetable curry.
.... and the curry powder
I usually use is a mixture of ground red chili, turmeric, fennel, fenugreek, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, clove, curry leaves, ginger and black pepper. I buy a Sri-Lankan make which is generally hot and very flavorsome as they do a really good and balanced mix that is just perfect for my taste.
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