I Gotta Do Something With This Lamb

Make Greek Moussaka, Lamb Stew or Ragout, Real Shepherds Pie,  Most men love Sheps Pie

What a bummer your hubby doesn't like lamb.  Luckily my OH is very easy going about food and will taste anything.

A curry sounds good, but not everyone likes curry.  I myself do not and would go hungry so make sure you find out if there are any who would not like it.  Otherwise in addition to chefed's suggestions I'd say make ground spiced lamb kabobs or meatballs.

I like curries in any form or kind.

Mid winter here, so could do with a nice hearty curry :)

Anyway, I would be a bit careful using the curry powder in a marinade and then browning it. The turmeric might burn and get very bitter.

I prefer going for the seperate spices and dry roasting the coriander and cumin seeds and only later on adding the turmeric.

Another suggestion would be to stew the lamb in beer and mustard (with thyme, onions and garlic)?

How did you do the lamb for hubbie? Wouldn't you want to try a total different preparation type for him and not tell him it's lamb and see if he likes it that way?

Lamb Saag is one of my favorite Indian dishes. It looks totally vile but tastes divine. It's a sort of lamb and spinach curry.  I'm still on the hunt for the perfect version of it myself. I like what the Royal India does with it in my neck of the woods.

Ungrateful fella that man.  ;)

Trim it, cut it into 1" cubes.  Salt+curry powder, light coating of yogurt, allow to sit for a minute.  Grill over very high heat.

When you're making a "curry," it's usually a good idea to not use the "curry powder" as a marinade. 

Typically the best sequence is to brown the unseasoned meat in a bit of oil or ghee and reserve it.  Reduce the heat slightly, pour off the fat (if any), add very thinly sliced onion and a little more oil or ghee to the pan and begin to cook the onions down.  When the onions are limp and transparent, add the dry spices and cook "the raw" off them (you'll smell it).  Next, add garlic and other aromatics (and tomato paste) if using.  As soon as the garlic becomes fragrant and the tomato paste begins to brown, return the meat to the pan along with some liquid.  Simmer, add more liquid as necessary, etc.

If you want to get deep "curry" flavor into the meat, mix some of the powder into yogurt, and use that for a marinade.  A yogurt marinade plays more to chicken than a red meat, but there are exceptions, lots of exceptions.

FWIW, I'm bracketing "curry" and "curry powder" in quotation marks because there aren't really any such names in traditional Indian/Pakistani cooking; and those things which we call "curry," and "curry powder" could mean a lot of different things.  Here, your neighbor's is most likely one variation or another on garam masala (another term which covers so much ground it's almost meaningless). 

In any case, I think the technique of cooking the spices on the onions is nearly universal and provides the best and deepest flavor.  Let me add a little context by saying that you should -- as a rule -- cook the onions to the point where they dissolve into the sauce and provide most of its structure.  But again, many, many exceptions.

BDL

kgirl, 

just as an aside.....curries actually help to cool you down by making you perspire a bit and you cool down as your sweat evaporates....kinda sorta  how your dog pants and pants to cool themselves down.... india, pakistan, thailand, asia, the west indies...they're all pretty warm places and curries are pratically if not their national dish.....of course it all depends on the type of curry as the range is soo varied from country to country...were it i, and i was making a curry dish, i would use a mild curry for the ff's....like a mussaman or a mild yellow indian...i would also make it more west indian...more calypso-y with the addition of raisins and pineapple etc......also were it i,  i would make some sort of rice to go along with it....coconut or spiced basmati or fruit and nut pilaf..that kind of thing......i made an irish lamb stew a few years back for st. patty's day.....holy cow....it was unbelievable...had either guiness or stout in it....no firefiighter worth their weight could turn this down....will send you the recipe if you like.....even michael would be a believer after tasting this...i promise......thank you kgirl for doing this for our firefighters...this fire season is already off to an incredibly bad start and these men and women will be very busy i'm afraid......we can smell and see the smoke from the new mexico fires all the way up here....it is tinder dry with low humidity and windy....a lethal combo...

joey

first off, i want to say that you have a heart as lovely as your islands. i am sure that whatever you make will be greatly appreciated...i'm even more sure that it will be wondeful as well, maybe even more than wonderful if you're not careful!...will send off the irish stew recipe tomorrow...i think it will be perfect...and it's easy breezy! when are you planning on making it?

new fire broke out just over the other canyon tonight...it's all national forest so it will just rage on through the canyons....very quiet like everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop...hope things are good in your neck of the cactus....till next time

joey

The fire restrictions came in to effect pretty strongly here in UT over the weekend.

K, The syle of font you are using is not that easy to read..

Thank You

i do have a question about adding curry to a dish....just curious how everyone else does it.....i was taught to not add curry powder directly into a dish....to dissolve it a bit in some water or broth before adding to your pot...i think it must help in not burning it on the bottom of the pan...we're talking powder here, not paste.....

joey

The "Indo/Pakistani way" (to the extent there is one way) is to add the powdered (or pasted) "curry" spices  to a hot pan with aromatics and oil, and add further ingredients when only the spices' volatile oils begin to release and make the pan fragrant. 

You're right that it's important to keep the spices from overheating, burning and becoming bitter.  But better to do that by controlling time and temperature with the flame height, addition of other ingredients, etc., than by cooking with raw spices which you don't allow to "open up."  

It depends which kind of dish you're making.  But if I (for instance) am making some sort of meat curry, I'll brown the meat, set it aside, add a little extra oil to the pan, begin cooking down the onions, usually add the chillies, ginger and garlic and cook til fragrant, add the dry spices or paste to that and cook til fragrant again (or vice versa on the spices and garlic), then the tomato paste if using, return the meat to the pan, and only then start adding the liquids.   

This dry-pan method and sequence not only leads to more vibrant and sweeter flavors, but helps break down the onions so that they structure the (eventual) sauce. 

Dissolving the spices in liquid before adding them to the pan is something of a technical no-no, but the rules of Indian cooking are at least as all over the map as any cuisine. 

My way is at least one of the authentic ways, and is also at least sound.  Whether or not you'll find it best or even good is a different question.  Try it, and if it doesn't convince you the first time you can always go back to yours. 

Another popular method you might try is pureeing powdered spices in a blender with some chillies, garlic, ginger and oil and making a paste.  You can add that to the bulk of the onions after they're partly cooked down.  A paste is a little more forgiving than just cooking from powder, and there's not enough water in it to drown the volatile oils or prevent the spices from roasting and sweetening.  

BDL

just to clarify a bit, i do cook the onions down a bit first ,then add the seasonings that the dish dictates(ginger, cardamom, cinnamon etc.), and continue to cook down before adding anything wet.  the curry mix is not just broth with curry powder in it...well it is, but it's more of a slurry really....but what makes it a technical no-no? what makes mine 'unsound'? ouch...must be my week...

joey

oh, while we're kinda sorta in the same cuisine arena, what type of beef do you use for satay? i'll take one of those recipes if you got one.....can i bake them or do they have to be grilled? this is for a cocktail party i'm catering...i don't need a sauce recipe, i got that one down......as always, thanks

The "no no" part comes from dissolving the spices in water which means they can't be roasted (more or less dry).  Big positive differences if you just cook the spices to the point where they start to smell good, negative difference is you overcook and burn them so they taste bitter.  It's a lot like garlic.  If you make a paste -- which is an oil slurry -- that will work.  Just liquids later.

Funny you should ask.  I use good quality (Choice) top sirloin for satay; sometimes flank; and sometimes -- but not often -- tenderloin, if I have some hanging around but not enough for Stroganoff. 

BDL

Quote:

Originally Posted by boar_d_laze 

You're right that it's important to keep the spices from overheating, burning and becoming bitter.  But better to do that by controlling time and temperature with the flame height, addition of other ingredients, etc., than by cooking with raw spices which you don't allow to "open up."  

 

Or an aluminum "kadhai" with a half inch thick bottom.  An old friend of mine has one and  maybe it's just my imagination, but swear the spices were roasting in oil for a half hour

Nice pics!  :)  Irish lamb stew with essence of bacon? 

Kgirl, you stew looks great. You had the bacon, just needed the guinness.....Irish all over.

Petals.