Indian Cuisine: Moghlai Lamb Korma With Sultanas

We love Indian food and I love cooking it because it is pretty easy, filling and always delicious. All these different spices coming together and even if you are suspicious, the way they work so well together is amazing and mouth-watering. If you haven't tried Indian cuisine before and if you consider yourself open-minded about different tastes, if you are into spices, then this is right up your street. As a Turkish person who mainly cooks Mediterranean dishes, at first Indian recipes looked very complicated to me. But once you get the basic spices in your kitchen, actually it is pretty straightforward. And many of the spices are common, like cumin, chilli pepper, black pepper, bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves... Spices like cardamom pods, coriander, mustard seeds, fresh ginger are different. And fresh coriander. I couldn't get used to the taste of it, so I used fresh parsley instead. Also, it doesn't have to be hot if it is Indian. Go for 'korma' sauce with chicken or lamb and you will end up with sweetish almondy dishes.

Ingredients: (serves 3 - 4)

250 ml fresh yoghurt
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of ground cumin 
1 teaspoon of crushed mustard seeds (the original recipe asks for ground coriander) 
1/2 teaspoon of ground chilli pepper (I used sweet chilli in this dish) 
4 tablespoons of chopped parsley (or fresh coriander) 
5 tablespoons of olive oil 
2 small sticks or 1 (5 cm) cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
6 cardamom pods
900 gr boneless chopped lamb
1 onion
4 tablespoons of sultanas
2 tablespoons of fresh cream 
Freshly ground black pepper

How to:
 
1. Pour the yoghurt into a bowl and whisk until it is creamy. Add salt, cumin, crushed mustard seeds (or ground coriander), chilli pepper, generous amount of ground black pepper and fresh parsley (or coriander) and mix to combine.

2. Put the olive oil into a deep pan (with a lid) and once it is heated add the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods and saute for a few seconds. Lay the meat into the oil in a single layer (they should not sit on top of each other) and brown on all sides.

3.  When the lamb is browned properly, take them out of the pan and let them sit in a plate. Then, add your chopped onion into the pan and start stirring and cooking.

 

4. Once the onions are brown on edges, bring the meat back into the pan and add the yoghurt mixture with the sultanas. Bring to a boil and turn the heat down.

5. Put the lid on and let it simmer gently for almost an hour or until the meat is tenderly cooked.

 

6. After an hour or the meat is cooked, take the lid out and turn the heat up if it is still juicy. By this time, my dish was all pasty, so I didn't have to turn the heat up.

7. Then, add the fresh cream into the meat, stir and let it melt properly. Decorate with more fresh parsley or coriander when you serve.

8. This dish goes very well with plain jasmine rice boiled with a bit of lemon juice and the squashed lemon itself. Eat and enjoy! 

Don't forget a small bowl of salad to go with it for some freshness.

My Indian recipes come from this book which I bought in England 3 years ago.