Indian Saturday #1: Rogan josh

On Saturday night I went what I can only describe as mental and decided to knock up a couple of Indian dishes for Charlotte and myself.

First up is rogan josh from Anjum Anand’s Anjum’s New Indian.

The list of ingredients looks incredibly long (especially when you’re wondering around Waitrose with an A4 shopping list) but when it comes to cooking it actually doesn’t seem too bad.

750g of lamb or mutton, cut into chunks
3 or 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 blade of mace
7 black peppercorns
3 cloves
2 black cardamom pods
5 green cardamom pods (I could only find green ones so used 7 of those)
5cm of a cinnamon stick
A large onion
2 medium tomatoes
12g of fresh ginger
6 large cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons of ground fennel seeds
2 teaspoons of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of red chilli powder
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 and a half teaspoons of garam masala
A pinch of salt
3 tablespoons of natural yoghurt
Fresh coriander

It won’t come as a shock to anyone that even with a bit of prep I managed to miss out the cloves and put all the spices in at the wrong time. Charlotte hit the nail on the head when she said “It’s not the best curry I’ve ever had but it’s still tasty.” I’d say that as she ate her body weight it must have been okay but by the time I served it up she was hungry enough to have eaten it off the floor had I dropped it.

So you have the ginger and garlic mix to hand while you’re cooking I’d do this before you start.
Chop the garlic and throw it in a blender and add the peeled and chopped ginger. Keep the chunks quite big or they’ll get lost under the blades like mine did. Add a slosh of water and whiz until you have a paste.

The tomatoes need to be puréed so I’d suggest using tinned ones. I was using fresh, uncooked and unskinned tomatoes at it wasn’t half a job. The 1980s kitchen equipment came out (with the usual story from my mother about how it’s older than me… maybe) and the tomatoes got ineffectively schmooshed in a bowl. They then went through a sieve but somehow there were still strips of skin in there. This wasn’t end of the world but strangely enough it’s probably better to do it properly.

Put both of these to one side and heat the oil in a large non-stick pan. Throw in the peppercorns, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and the mace. The recipe very clearly says ‘add the whole spices’ but I, in my true village idiot style, put all the spices in. Fry the spices until they sizzle and then add the onion. Cook this until it’s browned and then add the lamb, stirring until it’s also browned all over.

Pour in the garlic and ginger and lower the heat. Stir it about for a couple of minutes and the garlic should start smelling like it’s cooked. In goes the ground coriander, cumin, fennel, chilli powder, salt and garam masala. Stir this for just under a minute.

I couldn’t find any powdered fennel so Charlotte was given my make-shift pestle and mortar (plastic bowl, rolling pin) and told to crush away.

After the last of the spices go in add the tomatoes and turn the heat up. This then cooks for fifteen minutes and needs stirred once in a while. If it starts to dry up too fast add a splash of hot water.

After the fifteen minutes mine was still quite watery. I’m not sure it should be as the recipe says ‘add enough water to come halfway up the meat’ but never mind. Bring the curry to the boil and then turn the heat down quite low. Simmer for around 35-45 minutes until the meat is lovely and tender. The liquid should reduce into a thick gravy. Stir in the yoghurt before bringing back to the boil. Remove it from the heat, mix in a handful of roughly chopped coriander and serve.