indian lamb stew with coconut

While I have dabbled in trying my hands on Indian dishes before, I have never invested time to prepare them from scratch. As one of my new year's resolutions is to cook this cuisine by preparing with authentic ingredients and techniques.

I bought a 2.6 lb piece of lamb leg (half leg) but my plan was foiled when I snapped up a whole Alaska king crab at a bargain. I carefully preserve the piece of lamb leg hoping it will not spoil when I eventually get around to it.

Years ago I used to be very ignorant about spices. In recent years I tried hard to learn as much as I can and now I have a pantry full of dried spices. I went and dug out all common ones that are used in Indian cuisines to take stock of what I have and what more to buy next time I go shopping. Here are some.

To be honest I was procrastinated to making this lamb dish from using spices one roast, grind, and mix from scratch. I recently bought 2 Indian cook books by Madhur Jaffrey. I came across her from watching BBC's cooking shows as well as an episode of The Mind of a Chef in which April Bloomfield cooked an Indian dish with she was featured and present.

Last night I flipped through one of the book to find a lamb dish with ingredients that I already have at home. There were about 8 lamb dishes, and I managed to find one that I have nearly all ingredients at home. It is called Lamb in a Fennel - Flavored Coconut Sauce. I also read through some basic techniques in the book. I have all but two ingredients. One is poppy seeds and the other is fresh coriander for final serving. Easy enough, I substitute poppy seeds with white sesame seeds, and fresh coriander with chopped scallions.

Ms Jaffrey made her fame in UK a few decades ago, I know right away that her recipes have been relaxed on heat (as in chillies heat) for the British who generally not accustom to hot dishes. I adjusted up the spices that bring the heat. This is a Tamil Nadu dish. Tamil Nadu is located in the southern tip of the India Peninsular.

I trimmed off the fat from the 1/2 leg of lamb and that left me with about 2.1 lb of lamb meat, just perfect amount for the recipe in the book.

this book won James Beard Award for the best cookbook of the year in 1994

very well written recipe - short and succinct

 some of the spices - to be roasted before being ground up

from watching her show I learnt the importance of roasting the spices whole instead of buying ground spices

a whirling blade coffee grinder is a great kitchen tool

 i also used my Braun multi-purpose mixer and it's attachment to finely chop the garlic and ginger

 this was how the stew look shortly after the lamb meat was added

one most important part of making any stew is controlling the liquid and temperature - I control this by the flame intensity, the lid (covered, partially covered, and open), as well as taking care not to start with too much liquid to begin with

I used this Lodge 5-quart cast iron Dutch oven. It is one of my favorite cookware and it is so cheap. The most important thing is to season it properly. It is still made in the USA. While Lodge claims it is pre-seasoned, you want to properly season it yourself. I used beef tallow and it was a bit of work as I learnt from trial and error. You have to heat up the pot very hot to do this. I heat the lid separately to season it too.

 this is about 45 minutes of simmering in low flame (barely boiling)

this is the finished product - i increased the flame intensity slightly and with the lid removed to concentrate the juice

 with some true Greek yogurt and a bowl of good rice - it is one of the best lamb dish I've ever have

a complete Indian meal of this dish and two others

I am so happy that I made this dish. It is actually quite easy. From start to finish it took about 2 hours with 1 hours tending for the stew (and controlling the liquid content). It turned out to be incredibly good. A spoonful of the stew and you immediately know it is not the run of the mill dumbed down Indian food for Westerners. The coriander seeds really stand out and you can also taste the cardamon, and yes, the wonder refreshing hinds of fresh ginger. While spicy it is not bitter at all but rather, very well rounded. The onion brings just the right amount of sweetness. I am getting hungry just looking at the photos while writing this. This dish is not greasy at all and with it being rather spicy my stomach is totally at peace going to bed.

I tasted the stew along the way and added a lot more turmeric and cayenne pepper to increase the heat a bit. Next time I will add a lot more cayenne pepper to increase the heat. I used American lamb which is less gamy than New Zealand lamb. I used to be afraid of lamb but not so much now.

This is definitely a winner and will be added to my repertoire. Preparing this dish really opened my eyes on Indian cuisines. I gained appreciation of many not so familiar spices which I have very little idea as to their characteristics. I have no idea the lowly coriander seeds can do wonders to a stew. I also would have no idea one can use so much spices in a dish. I can see once you are accustomed to spicy and flavorful dishes like this many other cuisines can seem bland.

Traditionally Tamil Nadu meals are served on a piece of banana leaf. I have many banana plants during the summer and I am looking forward to put them to use more. When winter approached I tried to save some by freezing them but they don't keep. Strangely they are sold frozen and green so I infer they have been treated with chemical.

I want to make a vegetable dish next to go with this stew, one with mustard greens that have been cooked into a paste like consistency.