I love slow-cooking. I love how different flavours marry each other over time in the process, like a happy couple that endures each others' ways and slowly starts losing their individual personalities and become one. Stop it right there Fatima!
Stewing meat is one of the easiest way to do curries. I simply throw in the whole ingredients, get the flame going on low and pick up a book with a hot latte. You give it time and patience, you get the mouthwatering results in the end. Funny how these philosophies make their way into meagre tasks of daily life and actually are true. Sorry friends but I just can't stop wandering into pondering about life.
This recipe is a mixture of my mom's (ammi) and her sister's (my appi) recipes. There are a lot of variations of stew found throughout Karachi alone. Some do it with tomatoes, some with yoghurt and some with both. Some like to use partially crushed coriander seeds. Some use onion chunks. Some like beef, others swear by mutton. Also it has many names. Some call it 'Khare masale ka gosht' which means meat with whole spices, for others it's 'Kutey masale ka gosht' or meat with partially crushed spices. Some simply call it stew; the urdu pronunciation makes it sound like 'istu' which I find really amusing.
The equal ratio of onion to meat in this curry gives it a slightly sweet flavour. The colour of the finished dish should be a hue of gold. No fresh coriander to be sprinkled if you want to keep it authentic.
It is almost impossible to find goat meat in Manchester but I've developed a taste for lamb meat and hence that's my substitute.
LAMB STEW
INGREDIENTS
- Lamb meat (bone-in)- 500gm
- Thickly sliced onions- 500gm
- Beaten yoghurt- 2.5 cups
- Cloves- 4
- Black peppercorns- 12
- Cinnamon stick- 1
- Black cardamom- 1
- Bay leaf- 1
- Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
- Whole dried red button chillies- 6
- Coarsely chopped/crushed ginger- 1.5 tsp
- Coarsely chopped/crushed garlic- 1.5 tsp
- Oil- 4 tbsp
- Salt- to taste
- Ginger julienne-cut- 1 tbsp
Heat the oil and fry onion till gold. This step takes time. If the onions turn too dark, the colour of the finished dish will suffer. Some people don't bother with this step. They simply throw the onions in with all the rest and forget all about it. You could try it both ways and see which one you like better.
Once the onions are a desired colour, add the whole spices, ginger, garlic, yoghurt and meat. Mix well and 'leave to stew in it's own juices.'
After about 40 minutes I turned the flame to high and stirred it around quickly for a few minutes.
It took a total of 45 minutes and the succulence was to die for. Garnish with ginger. You can see green chilli as I love it but if you want to keep it original, skip it. Eat it the next day and it tastes even better. Serve with boiled rice, chapati or naan.
The other types of stews popular in Pakistan are 'Nihari', 'Paaye' and 'Haleem'. Simple when it comes to ingredients but the flavours are simply amazing. Will write about them one day :).
