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Ingredients

Method

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Heat the oven to 190°C/gas 5. Place the potatoes, red pepper and tomato in a large, flameproof oven dish or tin and season with the salt and pepper. Put the leg of lamb on top and pour over the lemon juice and olive oil, then add the garlic halves to the dish. Sprinkle all over with the oregano .Pour the water into the dish and cover with foil, sealing the edges well to retain the moisture as it cooks. (A large enamelled, lidded, cast-iron pot,such as Le Creuset, would also be suitable to cook this in.)

Cook in the oven for 2½–2¾ hours until the meat is falling off the bone, adding a little more water, if necessary, halfway through to keep the vegetables moist. Remove the foil (or lid) and add the feta, then return to the oven for 10 more minutes. After this time, check the consistency of the juices. If the dish seems a little dry, add a little more water. If too dilute, transfer the meat and vegetables to a serving dish and reduce down the liquid on the hob.

Serve the meat in chunks or thick slices with the vegetables and juices.

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A classic Indian staple with lamb as the star. This lamb rogan josh from Rick Stein brings together Kashmiri chillies, garam masala and green cardamom pods.

From the book

Rick Stein’s India ^[3] by Rick Stein ^[4]

Ingredients

Instructions

Put the ghee in a large, sturdy casserole over a medium heat. When hot, add the whole spices and fry for 1 minute, then add the onion and fry for 10 minutes until softened and golden. Stir in the garlic and ginger, fry for 1 minute, then add the ground spices (reserving the extra garam masala and ground fennel) and fry for 30 seconds.

Stir in the tomato puree, then add the lamb and salt and stir to make sure the lamb is well coated in the other ingredients. Pour in the water, bring to a simmer, then cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 1 hour or until the lamb is tender. Stir in the yoghurt and cream, then season with the extra garam masala and ground fennel. Scatter with the fresh coriander and serve.

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Ingredients (serves 4)

Rendang Paste

• 100g grated fresh coconut (can use desiccated)
• 4 dried Kashmiri chillies
• 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 225g shallots or onions, roughly chopped
• 30g garlic, roughly chopped
• 50g peeled galangal or ginger, roughly chopped
• 1 large fresh red chilli, seeded and roughly chopped

For the Curry

• Glug of oil. I used rapeseed
• 1kg of braising steak chunks
• 1 quantity of rendang spice paste – as above
• 2 tins of coconut milk
• 4 fat lemon grass stalks – bruised – (just bash them lightly)
• 12 dried kaffir lime leaves – crumbled
• 2 x 7.5cm cinnamon sticks
• 125ml Tamarind water – all you do is soak the 60g of pulp in 125ml of hot water and leave for 5 minutes.  Break up the pulp with your fingers and then strain the syrupy mixture through a fine sieve, discarding the fibrous material and seeds.
•  1 tbsp of palm sugar or you can use brown sugar, palm sugar will taste better in this dish.

Directions

For the paste

1. Heat a dry, heavy based, frying pan over a medium heat.  Add the coconut and stir for a few minutes until it is richly golden – don’t let it burn.
2. Tip into a food processor and leave to cool.
3. Meanwhile, put the dried Kashmiri chillies, coriander seeds and cumin seeds into a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder.
4. Add this to the processor with the cooled coconut add the rest of the spice paste ingredients and 100ml of water.  Blend to a smooth-ish paste.

For the curry

1. Heat the oil in a large, heavy based frying pan.  Add the beef in batches and fry briefly until it has changed colour but not browned, set aside in a bowl.  Add the spice paste to the pan and fry for a couple of minutes until fragrant. Return the beef and add the coconut milk, lemon grass, lime leaves and cinnamon sticks and 1 and a half teaspoons of salt.
2. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, add the tamarind water and leave to simmer, uncovered for 2 and a half hours, stirring occasionally, and more frequently towards the end of cooking, until the beef is tender and the sauce has reduced and thickened.
3. Remove the lemongrass from the rendang and stir in the palm sugar and season to taste.
4. Serve straight away with some wild rice, cooked to packet instructions. Enjoy.

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first had this fiery, deeply flavorful chicken dish as a friend’s home along with dosas and ever since hooked to it. I was told it’s a traditional Chettinad chicken curry and that there are quite a few variations to this recipe. In today’s version, chicken is simmered in coconut milk and gets its unique flavor from a blend of quite a few spices like fennel seeds, coriander seeds, poppy seeds, pepper corns, cardamoms and cumin to name a few.

Quite a bit of preparation goes into the making of this curry and there is no short cut method and if you have the time and the ingredients on hand, only then venture to prepare and please don’t compromise with the ingredients if you want that authentic chicken curry flavor.

1 Drizzle a vessel with oil and roast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, fennel seeds, red chillis, cardamoms, cinnamon and curry leaves on medium heat stirring constantly for 2 mts. Remove from fire, cool and grind to a powder.
2 Make a paste of the ginger, garlic, green chillies and poppy seeds. Keep aside.
3 Heat oil in a cooking vessel, add the small onions and curry leaves and saute till transparent.
4 Add the ground paste and cook for a minute before adding the chicken and cook on high heat for approx 4 mts and do stir the chicken once in a while.
5 Reduce to medium heat, add salt, turmeric pwd and tomatoes and combine well. Let the chicken cook in this for 4-5 mts, uncovered.
6 Now add the coconut milk and transfer the contents to a pressure cooker. Pressure cook for 4 mts or until one whistle. Open lid and combine well.
7 Finally add the ground masala pwd and cook for 3 mts. Turn off heat and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
8 Serve hot with white steamed rice, biryani, chapatis or dosas.

I first had this fiery, deeply flavorful chicken dish as a friend’s home along with dosas and ever since hooked to it. I was told it’s a traditional Chettinad chicken curry and that there are quite a few variations to this recipe. In today’s version, chicken is simmered in coconut milk and gets its unique […]