Two of my favourite ingredients in a single dish, especially in a curry. I love lamb in any curry dish. I think the lamb meat, any cut, holds onto spices better than any other meat. Love a slow cooked lamb dish when the meat flakes apart into the curry.

Then there is my favourite side dish – dhal. Lentils are superb and underused and ordered in the western world when eating out. To combine the two is a marriage made in heaven.

I did adapt the recipe to suit my needs as I only had four small lamb chops. The original recipe was written for 1 kilo of chops, however, in the UK nowadays to afford 1 kilo of lamb chops you need to be either a millionaire or re-mortgage your house!

I love adapting recipes to suit. It helps give you a better understanding of flavours plus helps educate yourself in the process. It’s all about learning, as they say, everyday is a school day!!

Ingredients-

1 1/2 tbsp of coriander powder

1 tbsp of cumin powder

1/2 tsp of ground black pepper

1/2 tsp of chilli powder

1/2 tbsp of paprika

3 tbsp of rapeseed oil

4 lamb chops

1 large onion finely diced

2 green chillies finely diced

2 tbsp of garlic & ginger paste

200g of chopped tomatoes (1/2 a tin)

1/2 cup of chana dhal soaked in a cup of water for 20 minutes plus – I gave it a little more.

Pinch of salt

1 tsp of garam masala

Handful of chopped coriander

Method –

Mix all the ground spices. Mix 1 tbsp of the oil with a tbsp of the ground spices in a separate small dish.

Coat the lamb chops with the wet mixture. Leave to marinate for at least 2 hours. Too be honest, I left mine for the whole day in the fridge as did the prep at 7am before work. Keep the rest of the dry mixture as you will need it for cooking the final dish.

Before you are ready to cook, take the chops out of the fridge allowing the meat to relax at room temperature for a little while.

Once you are ready and the rest of the prep is done, heat another tbsp of the oil in a large heavy based pan. Once the oil is hot, add the chops to brown them.

Brown the meat on both sides, this should only take a few minutes. You are doing this to seal in the spices flavours to the meat.

Seal the fat as well, so much flavour here……

Once you are happy with the colouring of the meat, remove the chops and set them aside.

Add the rest of the oil to the same pan as you want to keep the left over spice mix flavouring the start of your dish. Once the oil has come back to temperature, add the diced onions and green chillies. Cook for about 5 minutes until the onions are nice and translucent.

After the 5 minutes or so add the garlic and ginger paste along with the rest of the ground spice dry mix.

Give the pan a good stir. Combining all the flavours.

Your kitchen will smell amazing at this point. Add in your lamb chops……

Followed by the tinned chopped tomatoes……

Then the drained pre-soaked chana dhal……

Give the pan a good stir. Add enough water just to cover the mixture…….

Simmer the dish for about an hour. The dhal will need to soften but taken on the flavours.

As the dish simmers it will naturally reduce so check on it every now and again. Give the dish a gentle stir. Add back in the caramelised flavours on the side of the pan. You may want to add a little water if the lentils are still firm and the sauce has reduced.

Once you’re happy, season the dish with salt and garam masala.

Garnish the dish with the chopped coriander…..

Give the pan a good stir…..then serve ❤️

I served the dish with some shop bought chapatis. Ideal for soaking up the thick gravy.

Such a flavoursome dish. Also, quite an earthy and autumnal dish so ideal for the start of October.

Thank you for reading my ramblings if you have got this far. I know I need to find the time to write more, it helps me with my headspace, give me some ‘me time’ which I don’t have the luxury of.

Once again, the dish and recipe was inspired by the writings of The Curry Guy – Dan Toombs.