My take on lamb balti. The longer you cook it the bet­ter it gets. The quant­it­ies of the spices are approx­im­ate as I never meas­ure them, so taste as you cook and add more to bal­ance the dish if neces­sary. Roasting the lamb before adding it to the sauce gives it a great flavour.

Serves 4


Ingredients

• 500g Lamb leg or shoulder
• 2 tins Chopped tomato
• 1 Onion
• 4 Cloves garlic
• 1″ piece Fresh Ginger, finely chopped
• Fresh Coriander, finely chopped
• Bay leaf
• Star Anise
• Oil or Ghee
• 1 tsp sugar
• 500 ml Beef or lamb stock

Spice mix:

• 2 tbs Paprika
• 2 tsp Chilli flakes
• 1 tbs Ground cumin
• 1 tbs Ground coriander
• 1/2 tbs Ground turmeric
• Half a dozen curry leaves
• 1/2 tsp Cardamom, removed from pods
• 1/2 tsp Whole fen­nel seeds
• 2 tsp Mustard seeds
• 2 tsp Sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
• dash of Nutmeg
• Black pep­per
• Salt

Method:

You can do steps 1 — 6 the day before if you prefer and leave the cooked lamb in the fridge overnight.

1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Grind whole spices in pestle, using a little salt to help
3. Mix in remain­ing spices
4. Rub half of the spice mix into the lamb
5. Place lamb on roast­ing tray and roast in oven for approx. 30 mins
6. When lamb has roas­ted for 30 mins, remove from oven and allow to cool
7. Once cool enough to handle, chop into 2cm cubed pieces
8. Deglaze roast­ing tin with a little boil­ing water and set aside.
9. Meanwhile roughly chop the onion and gar­lic and fry in large pot with sugar until caramelised
10. Add remain­ing spices, bay leaf, star anise, ginger, chopped tomato and stock
11. Simmer on low heat for 1 hour
12. Add the diced lamb and reserved liquid from the roast­ing tray.
13. Simmer sauce for a fur­ther 1/2 hour, or longer if you’re not yet hungry.
14. Add chopped cori­ander just before serving
15. Serve with rice, naan bread or such