Rogan Josh

This Rogan Josh recipe is adapted from a great recipe book, ‘Indian – a collection of over 100 essential recipes’ by Parragon, which leapt off the shelf and into my basket during one mammoth trek through TK Maxx’s heaving aisles. Yes, I know I need another recipe book like a hole in the head, but it wasn’t my fault. Honestly. Leapt off. Review to follow.

Anyway, I say ‘adapted’ because having stopped at the enormous stumbling block of ‘stir in dissolved asafoetida’ and following two glasses of wine I decided I knew much better than the book author.  This is of course ridiculously untrue, but my version tastes gorgeous anyway, and was pronounced by Mr Gastronomics to be one of the ‘very best’ dishes I’ve ever served*

Oh, by the way, if you’re interested in knowing what asafoetida is, I had to look it up, it appears it’s a herb / spice used in a lot of Indian vegetarian cooking. Nearly wish I hadn’t, as the first line on the Google search results is “also known as devil’s dung’. That probably explains why I can’t find it down my local Dunnes.

*It should be noted he also had two glasses of wine in him.

• 1 onion + 2 tomatoes + 2 red chillies + 1 2 inch chunk ginger, grated + 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 400g diced lamb
• 350ml natural yoghurt + 2tbsp tomato puree + 2tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt + 1 tbsp ground coriander + 1tsp chilli powder + ½ tsp ground turmeric + ½ tsp garam masala + 2 bay leaves

1. Blend tomatoes and onion roughly in blender (i.e., not totally smooth)
2. Melt vegetable oil in deep pan with lid, toss in garlic and ginger and stir for a minute.
3. Add tomato and onion mixture, tomato puree, all spices except garam masala. Stir at medium heat for five minutes.
4. Add lamb, salt and yoghurt to pot.  Cover, reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for thirty minutes. Stir occasionally and if sticking, add some warm water.
5. After thirty minutes, add garam masala, stir, and cover again, cooking for further twenty minutes. Continue to add a small bit of water if sauce is looking dry. The idea is to cook long enough for lamb to be very tender.
6. Serve with rice (brown only in our house) and poppadums (available in Tesco €1.39)

Cheats:

Yoghurt: I didn’t have yoghurt so used crème fraîche instead. I’m sure it’s not at all orthodox but was close enough for us.

Spices: I misread the recipe and chucked a load of crushed cardamom pods in too. Yummy all the same.

Accompaniments: No need to stick to rice, a friend of ours from India serves this dish with potatoes, and it develops a beautiful stew-like consistency.