Moroccan Spiced Lamb
Sometimes in your life you stumble across something that is just perfect and comforting this may be a place, a drink but for me its a food and this Moroccan Lamb Curry is my comfort food.
I have grown to love spice as I got older and I learnt how to cook many different styles of curry from all over the world, I have spent years developing this recipe and it is now perfect for me.
Feel free to adapt this recipe to suit you and experiment with different ingredients that you like. I find that if I add chicken and cashews nuts as substitute to the lamb and the almonds it really works well especially if you ad extra lemon and lime juice to ramp up the summer flavours.
Here's whats needed:
* 1 tsp cayenne pepper
* ½ tsp mild chilli powder
* ½ tsp nutmeg
* 1 ½ tea spoon black pepper
* 1 ½ tbsp smoked paprika
* 1 ½ tbsp ground ginger
* 1 tbsp turmeric
* 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
* 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
* 1 x leg of Lamb trimmed and cut in to 1 ½ inch chunks (You should have around 3lbs of meat to feed 4-5 people)
* 2 x large Onions (Red or White) chopped
* 2 tbsp Olive oil
* 3 cloves of Garlic (Chopped)
* 1 pint Vegetable or Lamb stock
* 1 tbsp Tomato puree
* 2 x tins of chopped Tomatoes
* 115g of Dried Apricots chopped in half
* 70g of Dates chopped in half
* 50g of Raisins or Sultanas
* 100g of flaked Almonds
* 2 tbsp of Honey
* Coriander (Once chopped about 2 tbsp)
* Parsley (Once chopped about 2 tbsp)
* ½ a Lemon
* 200g Green Beans chopped into 1 inch pieces
I know its a long list but most of these ingredients will last you quite a while.
Here's a look at the amazing Moroccan Spiced Lamb:
Preparation:
Put all of your dry ingredients into a pestle and mortar and lightly grind them until they are mixed thoroughly. Put your lamb into a plastic lidded container and add your dry spice mix and shake well, leave the spice mix and lamb to infuse for 24 hours shaking the box at times to make sure the meat is fully coated.
1. Add 1 table spoon of olive oil to your sauce pan and bring to a high heat (nearly smoking) add your meat to the pan and seal / brown all the meat and stand to one side.
2. Add the rest of your olive oil into the sauce pan once it has cooled slightly and then brown / soften your onions also add garlic towards the end to cook out slightly.
3. Add you tomato puree and cook out slightly, this is important as tomato puree can be bitter if not cooked enough.
4. Poor your tinned tomatoes into the pan with the onions and start to mix slowly
5. Add your pint of hot stock to your plastic container to make sure you get all of your spice mix out and then poor into the pan, add your honey and the lemon juice.
6. Add your browned meat, apricots, dates, raisins, almonds and green beans and stir gently to make sure ever thing is mixed together but not broken up, once you are happy that everything is mixed put a lid on your sauce pan and put in a preheated oven 150c and leave to cook for 2-2 ½ hours or until the meat is tender.
Once cooked add the coriander and parsley and then turn gently a couple of times, serve with a plain rice or couscous and some natural yogurt which I mixed with fresh mint, diced cucumber and a squeeze of lemon juice.
This honestly has to be one of my favourite dishes that I cook and I have it at any time of the year. In the winter with mash or rice and a bit of extra spice then I couple it with a heavy red and this helps keep the cold away. Alternatively I have it with some citrus couscous in the summer and sprinkle over some pomegranate seed then drink a crisp citrus white wine with it.
Both ways are perfect and both you will enjoy.
Get cooking and drop me a comment of how the dish goes for you, you can always do this dish with chicken, beef or even seafood but just adjust your cooking times to suit.
Much love and peace out lovely people.
The Sartorial Yeti out xxx