Lamb curry.

All right! So I had some yummy lamb curry this afternoon for lunch & I'd like to share the recipe with you. Generally it is my dad who makes a really mean hyderabadi mutton curry (mutton is goat meat guys) but since I really don't know where I can get goat in Liverpool the lamb from Tesco's is a close second choice. This is really easy to make, atleast the way I do it & its really yum!

Traditional Indian mutton curry is made in a pressure cooker. It comes out absolutely delicious that way & the meat literally just falls off the bone. It can be made on a flame stove as well, like my dad does. But if you're scared of a pressure cooker like I am and have a electric hob- like I do =) don't fear. We'll make it work either way.

Firstly lets tackle the lamb. In itself it's quite a rich meat & very heavy, so trust me you want to take all the fat off it. Clean & wash the meat well, lamb fat doesn't taste very nice when cooked Indian style. Chop the lamb in small pieces, the size you want to eat in one bite. Lamb's a tough meat & you don't want to be ripping it apart & struggling with it on the table.

In a big bowl marinade half kilo chopped pieces of lamb in

-2 table spoons lemon juice

-4 table spoons greek yoghurt

-Pinch of salt, pepper & terragon each, or however much you prefer.

Wrap & keep to marinate in your fridge for an hour.

For the curry you need

-1 hugely large onion, finely chopped

-4 huge tomatoes, finely chopped

-2 table spoons garlic paste (or 8-9 cloves of garlic, finely chopped)

-2 table spoons ginger paste (or 30 grams ginger, finely chopped)

-Coriander seeds

-Mustard seeds

-Cumin seeds (a.k.a zeera/jeera)

-Cloves (powder or whole)

-Cardamom (powder or whole)

-Nutmeg (powder or whole)

-Cinnamon (a stick or powder)

-3 Bay leaves

To make the lamb heat 2 table spoon sunflower oil in a wok/kadhai/pan. Once medium hot chuck 10 grams of the coriander, cumin & mustard seeds in. You can also throw in whole black pepper kernels for a more spicy flavour. Then chuck a the cinnamon stick with a few cloves, cardamom & nutmeg bits or a couple of pinches of each powder followed by the bay leaves. Chuck the garlic & ginger in after 10-15 seconds. This should all be sizzling in your pan now & you might find it handy to reach for a splatter guard.

Throw your onions in now and stir 'em around till they're a nice golden brown & follow that with the tomatoes. If you don't like your curry with a it of tangyness to it, don't put as many tomatoes in. Now keep stirring this mixture so that it doesn't burn and cookit for a couple of minutes till it reduces by half. Reducing it means to cook the tomatoes & onions down, till you have a sort of mushy paste. This is called your 'tadka', which is the base of all Indian cooking.

Now you need to enhance the flavour of the curry with some good old Indian masala's (spices). Stick

-2 tea spoons garam masala

-1 tea spoon salt

-1 tea spoon coriander powder

-1/2 tea spoon turmeric (haldi)

-1 tea spoon chilli (or however much you like)

-1/2 tea spoon cumin powder

-A pinch of mango powder (a.k.a amchur powder, khataii)

and stir your mushy tadka around. Now stick your meat it & stir for about 10 minutes. Reduce the heat, add 150 ml of water, 5 table spoons of full (or half/single) cream & cook for a good 30 minutes. Keep stirring every few minutes so that the curry doesn't burn at the bottom of the pan. When it's cooked, garnish with some chopped coriander (or spring onions like I have 'cuz I ran out of coriander!!) and serve on a bed of rice.

For the rice, I usually use basmati rice which is widely available. But really anything you prefer will do. The key to cooking rice is to wash it a couple of times to remove the starch. You know when the water you're washing is doesn't turn a milky white, that your rice is clean. Stick your pinky in the vessel you're cooking your rice in measure the depth of the rice. Add water to twice that level, and that's how much water you need. Add a dollop of butter, a pinch of salt & a tea spoon of ginger paste in your rice & that makes it really fragrant.

Hope all this is pretty simple & easy to follow. This is the first recipe I've ever made up, don't worry I'm not quitting my day job just as yet! =) Let me know if this turns out well (or horribly wrong) with anyone & ofcourse, constructive criticism is always welcome!

Note to self. The cops just took D's car.