Lamb Rogan Josh

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg lamb shoulder, cut into 4 cm chunks
• 60 g ghee
• 3 onions, finely sliced
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 30 g ginger, grated
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 green cardamom pods, bruised
• 4 cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp sweet paprika
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp fennel seeds, ground
• 2 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
• 250 g full-fat yoghurt
• 2 tsp garam masala

Method

1. Bloom the whole spices

   Warm the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bay in the dry pan for a minute until they smell fragrant, then set aside. Whole spices need heat to open up and they need it before anything wet goes in.

   1 min

2. Brown the lamb

   Brown the lamb hard in the ghee in batches and set it aside. Shoulder has enough fat and connective tissue to take an aggressive sear and still turn meltingly soft over two hours.

   15 min

3. Cook the onions down

   Cook the onions slowly in the same pan until deep golden brown, then add the garlic and ginger. Pale onions give a thin, watery curry; this browning is where the body of the sauce comes from.

   20 min

4. Ground spices

   Stir in the paprika, coriander, fennel and chilli powder with a splash of water and cook for two minutes. The water stops the ground spices catching on the hot base and turning bitter.

5. Yoghurt, spoonful by spoonful

   Take the pan off the heat and beat in the yoghurt a spoonful at a time, letting each be absorbed. Added all at once to a hot pan it splits into grainy curds.

6. Slow cook

   Return the lamb and the whole spices, cover, and cook at the barest simmer until the meat gives completely. Finish with the garam masala off the heat — it is an aromatic, not a base spice, and long cooking flattens it.

   1 h 30 min