Recipe: Lamb Rogan Josh

This recipe is based on the excellent Route 79 Rogan Josh recipe, updated to ensure it contains absolutely no chilli or wheat products, so my wife and kids can eat it. It’s one of the kids’ favorite meals, and the only way Trina will eat lamb.

This recipe makes far too much, so we freeze the extra for another few kids’ meals when they’re tired and we don’t have time to cook.

You will need:

• About 700g of lamb.
• A thumb-sized chunk of ginger.
• Two or three cloves of garlic.
• 2 teaspoons salt.
• 1 teaspoon turmeric.
• 4 teaspoons whole coriander seed.
• 3 teaspoons whole cumin seed.
• 3 cardamom pods.
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon.
• 3 cloves.
• ¼ teaspoon peppercorns.
• A pinch of ground nutmeg.
• One star anise.
• One bay leaf.
• Chilli powder to taste.
• One large onion.
• A sploosh of oil.
• Two 400g tins of chopped tomatoes.
• A cup or so of coriander leaves (cilantro).
• A large pot, and a couple of hours until dinner
• A cup or so of basmati rice.

Remove the lamb from the bone, and chop it into bite size pieces, removing the worst of the fat. Roughly peel then grate the ginger with a Microplane or similar, peel and crush the garlic, and grind the coriander seed, cumin seed and pepper in an electric grinder.

Sploosh some oil into the pot, and chop the onion while it is heating. Fry the onion with the garlic and ginger until it goes soft, then add the salt and all the ground spices and keep frying. Some of the spices may stick to the pot, but keep stirring to make sure they don’t burn.

After a few minutes, add the lamb, the bay leaf and the rest of the spices. (Keep the coriander leaves for later.) Keep stirring while browning the lamb. As the fat cooks off the lamb you should be able to start scraping off any spices that were stuck to the bottom of the pot.

Once the lamb is browned and coated with the spices, add the tins of tomatoes. Put the lid on the pot and bring it to the boil, then turn it right down. Put the rice in lots of water to soak.

Let the pot simmer quietly for half an hour, then give it a stir. After another half an hour, chop the coriander leaves and stir them in, then keep cooking, stirring regularly to make sure it doesn’t catch. Drain and rinse the rice, and start cooking it however you prefer.

When the rice is done, serve it with the lamb on top, and put any leftover lamb in the freezer for later. Try not to serve the bay leaf or the star anise to the kids. Enjoy!