Spice Paste for lamb curry

[Lellyj]

This is a lovely fragrant spice paste for lamb curry.  You use the whole quantity.  It WAS our family favourite until my teenage children turned vegetarian!  Now our youngest child still enjoys it, and when I cook it just for 3, there is enough to freeze for a later day.  It is very mild, but you could easily increase the chilli, of course.  I make it mild and husband and I add spicy Indian pickles on the side to up the heat.
The original recipe came from a 2004 "Good Weekend" weekend magazine from the Age

Ingredients

1 red onion, quartered
5 garlic cloves
5 cm piece of ginger, sliced into 1 cm "coins" (peel if skin is tough, I don't bother for young ginger)
I bunch of coriander, well washed, roots, stems and leaves (I kind of chop the whole bunch in half above the roots)
1 1/2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
3 tsp ground fennel seeds
1/2 tsp chilli powder
good pinch of salt

Blitz it all in thermy approx speed 6 or 7 until you have a paste.  Of course, if you prefer to use whole spices, you can roast and grind them in thermy first, then add the remaining paste ingredients.

I prefer to cook this slowly on the stovetop, as I love the lamb to go all tender, but I'm sure true thermophiles would be able to figure out how to do a good job in the thermomix bowl itself.

The rest of the recipe is as follows

1.6kg leg of lamb, boned, excess fat removed and chopped into 3cm chunks (sweet talk your butcher)

Toss the lamb in 1 tbspn of olive oil and brown in batches in a large deep saucepan. Remove from pot.

Heat 20g butter and 1 tbsp olive oil in the pan (with all the yummy brown bits from the lamb) and add the paste and 2 cinnamon sticks and cook, stirring frequently for 3-5 minutes  (I know, I know, thermy usually does that!) until aromatic and starting to stick to the base of the pan.

Add
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
2 cups of chicken or veal stock (or equivqalent TMX stock paste and water)

and bring to the boil.

Add lamb to the saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Cover saucepan and simmer gently over lowest possible heat for 45 minutes. 

Add

800 g desiree potatoes, peeled (I never do!) and cut into 2.5 cm chunks

Cover and simmer gently for 1 hour 15 minutes until lamb is very tender.

Remove suacepan lid and simmer for 10-15 minutes to reduce sauce, if required. (I usually just monitor and take the lid on or off according to the thickness of the sauce)

Garnish with chopped mint and serve with basmati rice, thick yogurt, lime wedges and indian pickles if desired.


Next time I will take a photo.  Cuilidh kindly pointed me to instructions as to how to do that but our son is overseas with our camera at the moment and the ones I took on my mobile phone aren't worth the effort of uploading!

[CreamPuff63]

omg my darling, you are turning me off with all the woes of your teenage kids before I've had a chance to even look at the recipe! Gonna do it tho to spite the other 2 tho??

[Lellyj]

Ha ha, not my intention Creampuff!  Just felt a little guilty saying this was our favourite dish, when 2 out of 5 wont' eat it anymore!!  Ah well, all the more for me, husband and youngest son 

[trudy]

Sounds nice.  Perhaps you could break up the spice paste into two pots, one you continue cooking as per the recipe and the other just use vegetables and some pulses - ie tinned chickpeas for the kids.  That way you don't have to come up with two different meals. 

[judydawn]

Sounds delicious Lellyj and up here for thinking Trudy 

[Lellyj]

Yes it really is a nice dish, JD, and thanks for your idea, Trudy.  WIll definitely try that.  I do that kind of thing a bit, like I make Quirky Jo's fried rice and stir through chicken in one half and tofu in the other half, but hadn't thought to try it with this dish.  We are happy to eat vegetarian most of the time, but number three child really likes his meat!

[Carine]

Thanks for your recipe Lellyj:  looks very fragrant.  Lamb is a regular staple at our house (we breed damara lambs) so I'm always after recipes using lamb. 

[Twitterpated]

If anyone is going to translate this one, I would be interested in the recipe. [Starts winking & speaking in a coy mannner] JD were you going to maybe cook this one? 

[judydawn]

  Not in the foreseeable future Twitterpated - the freezer is full of meat but no lamb unfortunately.  I love lamb but find it one of the most expensive meats to buy.  I'm sure someone will work out the TMX method for you though. Thanks for your confidence in me by the way.

[obbie]

OH, how did I miss this one.
I have2 legs of lamb in the freezer.

Heaps of spices at home.

Robyn

[Lellyj]

Hope you enjoy it, Obbie, it is a family favouite.  I still haven't cooked the curry in the tmx though, but it whizzes up the paste in seconds.

[Halex]

Thanks Lellyj

Just bought a whole lamb today. Sounds great for a curry.

H

[DizzyGirl]

I might have to give this a try. As a have a leg of lamb in the freezer, I might make the paste and then smother it over the leg of lamb and stick it all in the slowcooker.

[Lellyj]

I haven't cooked this as a whole leg, or in the slow cooker, but I can't see that it wouldn't work.  Maybe don't add the stock, or as much stock, maybe just the tomatoes? I hope you like it, it's our family favourite.

[obbie]

This is fantastic.....