I have to thank my friend Lou for this recipe. I think it was a status update of hers that caused my stomach to rumble and my hands to immediately email for tips. I'm a big fan of Indian cuisine and do like to cook it at home, although it's never as good as it is when you order out - I'm guessing it's the ghee but so far that's something that I'm not prepared to purchase for my cooking. This dish was pretty tasty although Wil would have had more meat included, and I think it needed a little *something* but I'm not quite sure what. It did get Wil to eat spinach, even if he did complain the whole way through, so it can't have been that bad!
250g (9oz) Ghee*
3 tablespoons Fresh Coriander (chopped)
65g (2 1/2oz) Garlic I
1 tablespoon Ground Turmeric
1 tablespoon Red Chilli Powder
350g (12oz) Fresh Spinach washed with large stalks removed*
1 tablespoon Ground Cumin
4 medium sized Green Chillies with stalks removed*
1 tablespoon Paprika
½ tablespoon Garam Masala
550g (1 1/4lb) Onions Chopped
1 x 400g (140z) Can Chopped Tomatoes
50g (2oz) Fresh Ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon Salt
900g (2lb) Boneless leg or shoulder of Lamb (1½ in) cubes*
1 tablespoon Ground Coriander
120ml (4fl oz) water
A pinch of ground cumin and freshly ground black pepper to serve
*As usual I had to make a few substitutions with this recipe. First up there is still no way I can bring myself to use ghee, let alone this whopping amount. I used a swirl of olive oil - just enough to cover the bottom of the pan when frying off the onions at the start. I'm pretty sure it does detract from the flavour somewhat, but I prefer to lose a little on flavour in this instance (and it's about the only one!). We only had red chilies in the fridge so they had to be used instead of green and I kind of liked the little bursts of colour, but that's up to you. I used frozen spinach as spinach seems to be a very different creature in this part of the world and my options seems to be baby spinach leaves that I would usually use in salads, or the frozen stuff used here. All good though.
Sadly we had to use beef in place of lamb tonight as finding good lamb is tricky and when you do it costs the earth in this place. It feels more than a little wrong to be using beef, but since this is a Karachi curry and Karachi is in Pakistan we'll go with the fact that it's probably from the Islamic side of the fence and so including Daisy the Cow isn't too too offensive. I'm pretty sure they would have used some old goat in place of a nice spring lamb anyway!
Get to it!
Heat the ghee in a large, heavy based pan. Add the onions and cook over a medium heat, stirring now and then, for 20 minutes until they are soft and a light brown
Put the tomatoes, water, ginger and garlic into a liquidizer and blend until smooth. Remove the fried onions with a slotted spoon, add them to the paste and blend briefly until smooth.
Return the puree to the ghee left in the pan and add the lamb and salt. Simmer for 30 minutes, by which time the lamb will be half cooked and the sauce will be well reduced. Stir in the turmeric, chilli powder, cumin, paprika and ground coriander and continue to cook for 30-45 minutes for shoulder or 45-1 hour for leg, until the lamb is tender, adding a little water now and then if the sauce starts to stick - keep your eye on it as this does seem to be a common occurrence.
Meanwhile, put 175g (6oz) of the spinach leaves into a large pan and cook until it has wilted down into the bottom of the pan. Cook for 1 minute, then transfer to the rinsed out blender and blend to a smooth puree. Set aside. Rinse out the blender again and add the green chillies and 2-3 tablespoons of water and blend until smooth. Set aside.
When the lamb is cooked, there should be a layer of ghee floating on the top of the curry. You can either skim it off or leave it there, whichever you prefer. Then stir in the spinach puree and the remaining spinach leaves and cook for 2 minutes.
Now taste the curry and add as much green chili puree as you wish, according to how hot you like your curries. Simmer for 2 minutes more.
Stir in the fresh coriander and Garam Masala. Transfer the curry to a serving dish and sprinkle with a little more ground cumin and some freshly ground black pepper just before you take it to the table.
Serve with your choice of rice, Naan breads, poppadoms and whatever else you can cram in.
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