An Invitation to Indian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey [28]
To serve: Cut koftas in half and place on a warm platter. Spoon sauce over them and serve with almost any rice dish or with hot chapatis. Any yogurt raita and a pea or green bean dish would also go well with them,
Cubed lamb with onions and raisins
SERVES 6–8
This dish is an adaptation I have made from mullah do pyaza, a Moghul favorite in which the meat is served with a lot of fried onions. These onions are cooked separately but are added to the meat for the last 5 minutes of cooking time. I brown the lamb pieces before I cook them, because, as I explained earlier, the meat in America seems to have a very high water content and will not brown with the spices, as it does in India. The raisins I add are optional. You could omit them if you do not like raisins or add more if you really like them.
3 pounds boneless meat from shoulder of lamb (stewing beef may be substituted)
11 tablespoons vegetable oil
10 medium-sized onions
5 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
A piece of fresh ginger, 2 inches long and 1 inch wide, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
3 heaping tablespoons plain yogurt
2 tablespoons canned tomato sauce
1½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛–¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons golden seedless raisins
Trim fat off the cubes of lamb. Pat dry with paper towels.
Heat 5 tablespoons of oil in a large-bottomed pot. When oil is very hot, fry 7 or 8 pieces of meat at a time, browning well on all sides, and then remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl. When all the meat has browned, turn off the heat.
Peel and coarsely chop 2 of the onions and place them with the garlic, ginger, and 5 tablespoons of water in the container of an electric blender. Blend at high speed until you have a smooth paste.
Turn on the heat to medium under the pot in which you browned the meat. Pour in the paste from the blender and fry, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes. Add the coriander, cumin, and turmeric, and fry, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the yogurt, a tablespoon at a time, and keep stirring and frying. Then add the tomato sauce, a tablespoon at a time, and keep stirring. (In all, this should take about 10 minutes.) If after you have added the tomato sauce some sticks to the bottom of your pot, add warm water, a teaspoon at a time, scraping the bottom and continuing to cook. The paste should turn a rich brown color.
Put in the browned pieces of lamb along with any liquid that has accumulated, 1 cup of water, the salt, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, cayenne (if desired), and black pepper. Mix well. Bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat, and allow to simmer gently for 1 hour. (The beef should cook for 2½ hours.)
Meanwhile peel the other 8 onions, cut them in half lengthwise, and slice them into half-rings ⅛ inch thick.
Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in each of two skillets over medium heat. (It is quicker and easier to use two skillets, frying half the onions in each simultaneously. You can also do them in two batches.) When the oil is hot, fry the onion slices 10 to 12 minutes, until they are browned but not crisp. If the lamb has cooked 55 minutes to an hour by this time, remove onions with a slotted spoon and add them to the meat. If not, remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl and set aside. Turn off the heat under one skillet. Into the other put the raisins and fry for a few seconds until they turn brown and puff up, then add to the meat pot if the meat is done or hold in the bowl with the fried onions. Once the onions and raisins have been added to the meat, simmer for 5 minutes.
To serve: Serve with pooris or chapatis, a yogurt dish, a relish—Sweet Tomato Chutney or Cucumber and Tomato with Lemon Juice—and a vegetable: cabbage or cauliflower would be good. Almost any plain rice or vegetable and rice dish can be served with it