Kashmiri lamb curry (rogan josh). Pea and mint waffles

Rogan josh is a spicy dish of Persian or Kashmiri origin. Made with individual spices rather than a curry mix, this Kashmiri lamb curry has considerable depth of flavour. The waffles and raita provide a welcome cooling balance.

There is no substitute for sourcing and preparing all the individual spices used in this dish. Curry powder does not make an authentic South Asian curry. It is appropriate for a Japanese style curry like this tofu and wild rice dish, or this mushroom curry udon. But not here. If some of these spices are unfamiliar to you, this video guide may be useful…

The best cut of lamb to use for this dish is leg or shoulder, bone removed and diced. The leg and shoulder muscles of a sheep work very hard. As a result, they are extra tasty. The downside of course is the cooking time. Cooing this kashmiri lamb curry for 3 hours in the oven results in very tender yet very tasty pieces of lamb.

The pea and mint waffles are not at all authentic. Purely my idea because I love crispy tasty waffles. Together with the raita, they do provide some welcome balance to the rich kashmiri lamb curry.

Kashmir lamb curry (rogan josh). Pea and mint waffles. Raita

Servings: 5 people

Author: Steve Paris

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Curry:

• 1 kg diced lamb 20x20mm pieces
• 1 piece fresh ginger thumb sized
• 8 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp paprika
• 100 g unsweetened natural yogurt I used kefir yogurt as it is not thickened
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 3 onions
• 2 red peppers
• 5 stalks of fresh coriander
• 3 fresh red chillies
• 6 cardamon pods
• 2 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1 Tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 Tbsp coriander seeds
• 2 dried red chillies
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 star anise
• 5 medium tomatoes skins and stalks removed
• 2 cups water, veggie, or chicken stock
• 2 sweet potatoes peeled and diced into 10mm x 10 mm pieces

Waffles:

• 1 1/2 cups peas fresh or frozen
• 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh mint
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup half and half milk and reserved pea water
• salt and pepper

Raita:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened yogurt
• 1 tomato
• 1 medium cucumber
• 1/2 cup mint
• 3 spring onions finely diced

Instructions

Prepare the lamb…

• Peel and grate the ginger
• Finely chop the garlic
• Mix together ginger, garlic, turmeric, yogurt, black pepper, and lamb
• Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.

Cook the curry…

• Preheat oven to 170 degC
• Roughly chop the onions, peppers, fresh chilies, and the coriander stalks
• Blitz in a blender/food processor until finely chopped
• Remove the seeds from the cardamon pods
• Toast cardamon seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, and coriander seeds.
• Grind until a fine powder
• Roughly chop the skinned tomatoes, removing the hard stalky bit.

In an oven ready pan…

• Add sesame oil and 10 gm butter to the pan.
• Add blitzed onions and peppers and cook until translucent
• Add ground spices and cook until fragrant
• Add the tomatoes, 2 cups of stock or water, and the marinated lamb mixture.
• Add the cinnamon stick and bay leaves in a muslin bag.
• Place the lid on the pot and put in the oven.
• After 2 hours, gently stir in the diced sweet potato if using.
• Put back in the oven for another hour.

Waffles:

• Cook the peas in just enough boiling water to cover until soft.
• Allow to cool then coarsely mash.
• Whisk the eggs together
• Whisk together the flour, eggs, baking powder, milk, salt and pepper, Should be the consistency of wet concrete. Add a little milk, or flour, to achieve the consistency.
• Let the waffle batter rest for 20 minutes.
• Add coarsely mashed peas and chopped mint to the waffle batter and gently combine. Only add as much waffle batter as needed.
• Make the waffles.

Notes

Garnish with fresh coriander and mint leaves.