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 a lamb curry recipe. I feel terribly bad for not prioritising this but only time is to blame.
time is unfairly flying way too fast 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.
Oh, la, la!! This is a heck of a dish that anyone I know LOVES it 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 too 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 pad filled with recipes. I actually can’t wait.
I must have made this curry about 10,000 times so here is the recipe folks. Here is how I make it.
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.
I have tried many curry dishes but never tried this Lamb Curry and it’s delicious and super healthy, I’ll love to try this one. Thank you for sharing.
Oh Melve, lamb curry is the absolute ultimate curry for me. It’s the best. You must try it. It’s delicious 😋, it really is. 👌
Oh my what a wonderful sounding collection of ingredients, I envy your ability to get curry leaves… It is the only ingredient missing from my Indian store cupboard, I finished my last stock about 6 months ago and have not been able to top up since 🙁
Thank you Brian,
I seriously would send you some if allowed via post. I have a big bag of organic dry curry leaves that I can happily share. Now I’ve got a little curry leaves tree in house that I look after – came all the way from Sri Lanka couple of years back – nothing like fresh leaves but so hard to get nowadays even here. No longer available in supermarket big stores like tesco Sainsbury’s etc. Not quite sure why.
Let me know if you want me to send you some – will happily do that. Shame we don’t drive to Romania this summer – would have brought you some. 😉👌
I love lamb curry and I think it’s great to make a curry that is not swimming in oil. Can’t wait to try this!
Thank you Amanda, you’re so right, the super amounts of oil in curries can be so off putting- for me at least. I always say and feel that there is absolutely no point to add oil whenever cooking with meat. 😊👌
I do not cook with curry much but these flavors sound incredible!! I will have to try this recipe soon!!
Indeed Aleka,
Since I have discovered curries, I can no longer live without one and make one almost weekly – curries are very healthy too of course unless cooked unheathily with loads of oil added and too much frying involved 😉
Can I have some curry leaves too? Haha! Not so easy to find here in Italy either! I love the sound of your tree! Sri Lanka is top of my bucket list! I’m hoping to go soon, maybe next year! AND lamb curry is my favourite type of curry. Your recipe sounds delicious. I’d love to make it!
Hi Jacqui,
The curry leaves, the fresh ones are soo amazing, oh the flavours these give to a curry it is so unique. When you will be going to Sri Lanka you will taste the real stuff – they cook pretty hot curries and when you will make it to Lndon, a curry will be waiting for you over here 😉 Happy cooking lovely. 😉
I am a big lamb fan and love it in curries as well. Yours looks so tasty!
Thank you Caroline, I am happy you like it – hopefully you will give it a go soon.