DHANA GHOSHT

A popular North Indian lamb dish with coriander

I don't know its authentic Indian name. We simply call it "dhana lamb" as that's how its always cooked at home. Dhana means "coriander" in Gujarati.

Ingredients

• 700 g stewing lamb, trimmed of fat and diced
• 500 ml full fat natural yogurt
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 20 ml ground coriander
• 2 lila murcha, (fresh green chilli peppers), crushed
• 20 ml paprika
• 15-20 ml salt
• 60 ml cooking oil (mustard oil is best)
• 2 medium onions (or more to taste)
• 15 ml cummin seeds
• 5 ml turmeric powder
• 10 ml black mustard seed
• 20 g ginger, coarsely crushed
• 10 ml red chilli powder (also called cayenne pepper or lal mirch)
• 100 g fresh coriander

Procedure

1. Dice the meat into bite-size cubes, and soak in warm water for 2-3 minutes.
2. Mix the paprika, ground coriander, salt, crushed garlic, and crushed green chillies with yogurt. Drain the lamb and add to the yogurt marinade.
3. Leave to marinate for at least six hours. Ideally it should marinate in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
4. Dice the onions into thin semi-circles. In a large saucepan or a generous frying-pan, heat the cooking oil over a high flame. Add the onions when the oil is hot enough to "steam". Reduce the heat to medium and stir occasionally. Fry the onions until they change colour to a deep red/brown. This should take 10 to 15 minutes.
5. At this point add the black mustard seeds and stir a few times. Then add the ginger, cummin seeds, red chillies and turmeric powder. Increase the heat and fry this "masala" for a couple of minutes.
6. Add the marinated lamb to the masala and mix well.
7. At this point you have two options, either to cook the meat on the stove or to bake it. Stovetop cooking takes less time but requires fairly constant stirring. It should be cooked in a covered saucepan on a low to medium flame for about 45 minutes. Add water if the sauce gets too dry and begins to stick. For baking, transfer it to an ovenproof casserole, cover it, and bake for 1 1/2 hours at 95C Check occasionally, though you are unlikely to need to add any water to the sauce.
8. Finally, prepare and wash the fresh coriander in cold water. Only the leaves and the tender stems should be retained. Chop coarsely and mix well just before serving. If you don't have any fresh coriander, then mix in 15 ml of coriander powder. Serve with well buttered (boiled) rice or pita bread, and fresh salad.

Notes

I think the dish tastes a lot better if it is baked. It's even better if cooked for a longer period at a lower temperature.

Rating

Contributor

 
Mukesh J Patel 
University of Edinburgh, Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, Scotland 
seismo!ukc!cstvax!epistemi!mukesh 
mukesh@uk.ac.ed.epistemi 
 

Original header

Path: decwrl!recipes
From: mukesh@epistemi.ed.ac.uk (Mukesh Patel)
Newsgroups: mod.recipes
Subject: RECIPE: Coriander lamb
Message-ID: <4581@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: 3 Aug 86 07:20:29 GMT
Sender: recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM
Organization: Cognitive Science (Epistemics), Edinburgh U.,Scotland
Lines: 106
Approved: reid@decwrl.UUCP


 Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted
provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial
advantage, the USENET copyright notice and the title of the newsgroup and
its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of
the USENET Community Trust or the original contributor.