Right then, if you have been following my blog then you might have read my post about curries and how passionate I am about them. You can also gather that from the ramble I went on.
Anyway, let's get to the point: Basically for the six months before Christmas, I always start the hinting game. And one of the hints I gave this year was an ice cream maker. Like clockwork my girlfriend went to work by giving the task to my sister. I would be apologetic about hinting, but getting a present that is nice but not practical can be a bit of a let down - plus you know you are always going to get a few surprises at Christmas if your other half is like mine.
The funny thing is that I didn't get the ice cream maker as my sisters fiance had other ideas- and what an idea it was! In a million years I would have never guessed what he got me. It was a pot, not just any pot, but a Tandoori cooking pot. I couldn't believe it, what a legend! I have to say that with my increasing thirst for cooking ideas at the moment, the present couldn't have been any better.
The pot instructions on how to use the tandoori came with a recipe that I thought was only right to use first. It was nice, but left me wanting, so I goggled tandoori recipes and to be honest there weren't that many recipes out there. So I decided to use my amateur experience and have a go myself. The date today is 23/02/2012, and I'm posting this recipe without having cooked it yet as the lamb is still marinating in the fridge. So anticipation is high as to see how the marinated lamb turns out. Anyway here's the recipe for the marinade. BTW with this recipe you will have almost half of the spice mix left for any kind of curry you may want to try and you will also have half the marinade left which you can freeze for a curry in the future.
What you need for the lamb:
780g lamb, diced into 2inc cubes
juice of 1 lime
tsp of salt.
For the marinade:
1 small onion chopped
2 shallots chopped
3 cloves of garlic chopped
a large nob of ginger grated
4 red chillies finely chopped
large bunch of coriander
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp roasted coriander seeds
2 tbsp roasted cumin seeds
12 roasted cardamon pods
10 roasted cloves
1 tsp turmeric
4 tbsp yogurt
4 tbsp oil
What to do:
First thing you need to do is chop the lamb and put into a mixing bowl. Add the lime and salt, mix and cover, I would leave it for 20 minutes. In the meantime you want to gently roast the coriander seeds until they start to smoke and they give off a nice aroma, then do the same with the cumin, cardamon pods and cloves. Then grind in a pestle and mortar or spice grinder. You will notice that you have quite a fair amount of spice mix which you won't need. The extra will make a nice spice mix for a future curry. Now you need to chop the onions and shallots, then finely chop the garlic, grate the ginger, finely chop the red chillies and roughly chop the fresh coriander.
Right, this is the part where you need a food processor. Add the onions, garlic, ginger, chillies, fresh coriander and a pinch of salt. Then add 1 and a half tbsp of the spice mix and a tsp of turmeric to the blender. Add 4 tbsp of yogurt and switch on the blender and mix. Gradually add 4 tbsp of oil. I used groundnut oil. Blend the mix till almost paste like.
Now your marinade is ready. Take half the mix and really rub the mix into the lamb chunks, making sure that you coat the whole of the lamb, then cover and put into the fridge. You can put the other half of the mix into the freezer so you can use it for another curry. There you go, my take on a tandoori lamb marinade. Hope you like.
Happy Cooking and Enjoy.
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