Here’s my second curry adventure from the Curry Bible my wife bought me for Xmas. My first attempt was Butter Chicken and was thoroughly awesome. This one was just as good I’d say, and it should be given all the ingredients that went into it: 8 different herbs and spices!
The hardest thing to find was dried fenugreek leaves. The supermarket didn’t have any so we walked to Hatfield Road, where St Albans’ Asian community has a strong presence. The first shop we tried didn’t have any but the proprietor was thoroughly helpful in pointing us to his competitor down the road who “has everything”. He wasn’t wrong – Madina Store is an Aladdin’s Cave of wonderful foodstuffs, stacked floor to ceiling. It took us a while and some assistance before finding what we wanted, though it was in a packet akin to a family size box of Cornflakes. I only needed a tablespoon! Luckily my wife spotted a much smaller box (more Kellogg’s Variety pack size) on the way out so we got that. We could also have got fresh Fenugreek leaves and anything else that has ever been used in Indian cooking as far as I could tell.
The cooking was relatively straightforward with all the ingredients assembled, and almost a one-pot job. Marinate the lamb cubes in red wine vinegar and salt for a bit (which quickly turns it a funny colour), make up the sauce by adding various things to a saucepan as per the recipe and leave to simmer with the meat in it for 50 minutes or so. This is the only cooking the meat gets – no frying. One issue I did have was that the cinnamon stick (only a small piece) disintegrates quite readily and is then a pain to pick out in shards whilst eating it. The recipe made no mention of the stick after adding it, so it’s a mystery what was supposed to happen to it.
The only downer on the washing up front is that you have to use a separate pan to fry the garam masala (only 1/4 of a teaspoon of it) at the very end, before adding it to the rest. I messed this bit up by burning the spices in oil that was too hot, and had to throw it away and try that bit again. No damage done.
The result was served with some curried veg from Waitrose – they seem to have a new range – to bulk it out, and garlic and coriander naan. It was another great meal from the good book, though it doesn’t make a great deal and needed the bulking out.