Food Post #206: Vegetarian Lamb Curry

Here's a lovely recipe for not-your-typical-lamb curry. Bengalis call it "vegetarian lamb," and I believe Kashmiri Pandits also make this dish. It is "vegetarian" because they don't use onions and garlic. Funny! How do you make lamb curry without onions and garlic?? Well you see, you can.

Yield: 4 adults 

Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes (in a pot) 

Ingredients: 

1. Lamb (cut for stew)- 2.5 lbs

2. Fennel Seeds- 4 tbs

3. Cumin- 4 tbs

4. Cinnamon powder- 1/2 tsp

5. Cardamom- 4 pods

6. Cloves- 4-6 

7. Bay Leaves- 2

8. Asafetida (hing)- 1/2 tsp

9. Ginger- 1.5 inch

10. Green Chilies- 8-10  

11. Buttermilk- 1 bowl (or yogurt- whipped)

12. Cooking oil- 8 tsp

13. Ghee (clarified butter)- 2-3 tsp

14. Water- 1 cup (adjustable) 

15. Saffron- a good pinch or two

*Soak saffron in buttermilk (or whipped yogurt) at the beginning of the cooking process

Method: 

1. Powder ingredients 2 to 8 in a small coffee grinder, and set aside. 

2. Make a coarse paste of ginger and green chilies, and set aside.  

3. With some cooking oil plus ghee in a thick bottomed pot, get the heat going, place lamb pieces one by one, allowing one side to brown up. Then turn over to brown up the other side. This shouldn't take too long- say about 5-7 minutes on high flame. 

4. Now add the dry spice mix we made in step 1 to this, and fry for a couple minutes, followed by the ginger green chili paste. Stir everything together. At this point, enticing aromas will begin to emanate from the lamb and spices. 

  

5. Now add a cup of water, or enough to barely cover the lamb pieces. Add salt to taste. Bring to boil, cover, reduce flame, and simmer for 30 minutes. 

6. At the end of 30 minutes, uncover. At this point, I like to break the lamb into smaller bite sized pieces with the help of the ladle itself. The lamb will still be a bit tough. Cover again, and simmer for another 30 minutes. Now the lamb will be nice and tender, just the way I like. Add some more water, as the liquid would have reduced at the end of 1 hour.  

7. Now slowly add the buttermilk with saffron, while stirring the curry as you pour the buttermilk. Bring to boil, reduce flame, cover, simmer for about 8-10  minutes.  

Buttermilk with Saffron 

Delicious Lamb Curry

8. For a final touch, add some freshly ground pepper, and a couple chilies slit lengthwise. Serve with steamed rice. A side of quickly sautéed greens such as swiss chard and spinach goes very well with this lovely lamb curry and rice. 

Lamb curry over a bed of rice, with some swiss chard on the side

See? You can in fact make curry, that too lamb curry (!!) without using onions and garlic, and red chili powder, and tomatoes. It's turns out as delicious as ever.