I haven’t posted for a while as I’ve had too many personal distractions. However, the cooking has helped.

I’ve put a lot of focus into cooking authentic dishes whilst still cooking ‘westernised recipes’. The ‘authentic’ dishes have a completely different make up and method to the westernised dishes which I find more appealing. Westernised dishes tend to be about cooking at speed adding flavour / spices quickly whereas the ‘authentic’ dishes tend to more relaxed, cooking slower letting the basic ingredients do the work which they have to as you have less ingredients but I’m finding they give better results and flavours.

This recipe is a traditional dish from Madhur Jaffrey from her ‘Curry Easy’ cook book. A very simple recipe with only a few ingredients but wow, what a dish!!

Ingredients-

5 tbsp of rapeseed oil, 1 small cinnamon stick, 2 bay leaves, 8 cardamom pods, 2 onions finely diced, 2 garlic cloves crushed, an inch piece of ginger finely grated, 600g of lamb (I used diced neck) 1 tsp of cayenne pepper, 1 1/2 tsp of salt, 350ml of water, 1 tsp of garam masala, small handful of fresh coriander finely chopped.

Method –

Heat the oil in a heavy based pan. When hot add the cinnamon, bay leaves & cardamom pods letting them sizzle for 10/15 seconds.

Add the onions. Fry these on the flavoured oil until they start to turn brown around the edges which should take about 10 minutes.

Once the onions have taken on a nice colour add the garlic & ginger stirring them into the onions.

Now add the lamb. Stir the lamb around the pan until it browns slightly.

Add the cayenne pepper, salt followed by 350ml of water.

Once the water is added bring this to the boil. Once it’s come to the boil add a lid to the pan covering it tightly. Lower the heat and allow it to simmer for 60 / 70 minutes. Check occasionally giving it the odd stir and top it up with water if needed.

The liquid with evaporate leaving a nicely thick like gravy. Season with garam masala and stir the pan.

Add the chopped coriander. I always add the stalks as soon as much flavour included ❤️

Give the pan a good stir. You are left with a lovely fragrant thick gravy. Bhuna means ‘browned’ or the process of browning. So the meat has browned along with the thick sauce.

I served mine with steamed rice. This was a simple and tasty dish to make. Due to the cooking process the lamb was full of flavour and fell apart in your mouth ❤️.

Thank you for reading my ramblings if you have !