Lamb Kofta Curry

Lamb Kofta Curry

It’s Spring!  Although last week felt more like summer and next week is meant to feel like winter… but according to the calendar, it is Spring, officially!  So let’s celebrate with some lamb, glorious, lamb 🙂  I really do think it’s my favourite red meat, and not just because roast lamb is an excuse to eat mint sauce… Of all the ways to cook it, though, this is a favourite.

Curry and lamb work so well together, and what I love about this curry is how wonderfully aromatic it is.  And like so many curries, all the hard work is up front, but the meatballs are so deliciously moreish that it’s worth all the prep work, and then some!

The original recipe is from an old and much splattered copy of Delicious.  The version I’m sharing is tried and tested and adapted to make prepping a little lazier, but no less tasty for it.

Lamb Kofta Curry
Serves 4
A glorious and unabashedly aromatic curry that'll win over even those people who don't (usually) eat lamb. There won't be any leftovers!
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You’ll need
  1. 1 tsp ground coriander
  2. 1 tsp ground cumin
  3. 2 tsp ground turmeric
  4. 2 tsp garam masala
  5. 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  6. 4 medium onions, finely chopped
  7. 4 garlic cloves, minced
  8. 2 medium-hot red chillies, de-seeded and finely chopped
  9. 2.5cm fresh ginger, finely grated
  10. 2 tbsp tomato purée
  11. 1 pint/500ml lamb stock, hot
  12. 7.5cm piece cinnamon stick
  13. 6 cloves
  14. 8 green cardamom pods, cracked open
  15. 50g creamed coconut (Bart’s do four individual sachets in a box, which I can highly recommend)
  16. 500g lean lamb mince
  17. 3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander, plus extra leaves to garnish
  18. 1 medium egg, beaten
  19. Sunflower oil for cooking
  20. Salt for seasoning
  21. Boiled rice
  22. 2 dried curry leaves, crumbled (optional)
Prep before you start
  1. Finely chop the onions, mince the garlic and grate your ginger (fifi's top tip - don't forget to use frozen ginger to make grating the stuff so much easier!) Get those CSI gloves on and de-seed and finely chop the red chillies, then remove the gloves carefully and set aside as you’ll need them again later. Measure out your spices into a small bowl – coriander, cumin, turmeric, garam masala and cayenne pepper.
Cook!
  1. Heat some oil in the stewpot before adding the onions and garlic, and fry gently for 7-10 minutes until they are lightly browned.
  2. Then add the red chillies, spices and a little salt, and cook gently for another 5 minutes.
  3. Turn the heat off and remove half the fried onion mixture to the mixing bowl and leave it to cool. Leave the other half in the stewpot as this will form the base of your sauce.
  4. While things are cooling, finely chop up the fresh coriander.
  5. Once the fried onion mixture is cool, add the lamb mince, chopped coriander, beaten egg and a little salt into the mixing bowl with it. Get those CSI gloves back on, and then use your hands to mix everything in the bowl together (fifi's top tip - vinyl gloves will save your hands from succumbing to the spices and turning a not very fetching shade of yellow!)
  6. Now, if you want to check the seasoning of the lamb and spice mixture, cook a wee bit in the frying pan and taste. Adjust seasoning if you think it needs it. Once you've made these a few times you may not feel the need, or want, to do this bit. I don’t any more 🙂
  7. Roll the lamb and spice mixture into meatballs, about golf ball sized, and set them onto a baking tray. Once you’ve made them all, pop the tray into the fridge for about half an hour to firm the meatballs up a little.
  8. Take the meatballs out of the fridge and heat some oil in a heavy-based saucepan before frying off the meatballs – it usually takes me about 3 batches as I don’t like to crowd the pan. You just want to seal the meatballs and get a little colour on them, not cook them through. Place the fried off meatballs onto some kitchen roll to blot the worst of the grease.
  9. While you’re frying off the meatballs, it’s time to get the sauce going. Add the ginger, tomato purée, lamb stock, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom pods, coconut (and curry leaves if you’re using them) to the remaining onion chilli spice mix in the stewpot and bring it all up to a gentle simmer.
  10. When all the meatballs are fried off, drop them gently into the simmering sauce. Partially cover with the lid, and then simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring gently every now and then. After this, the sauce should have reduced and thickened a little, and the meatballs should have set.
  11. If you’re planning to freeze and eat later, this is where you should turn the heat off, spoon the lot into a plastic container and leave to cool before putting it in the freezer.
  12. If you’re planning to eat it now (or reheating what you’ve thawed out), put the lid on the stewpot and let it simmer away for another 15-20 minutes. If it’s looking a little watery, I crank the heat right up for a couple of minutes or until sauce is looking more robust.
  13. Serve with boiled rice, and garnish with some fresh coriander. I defy you to leave any meatballs standing…
Adapted from Delicious Magazine
Adapted from Delicious Magazine
fifigoesnom https://www.fifigoesnom.com/
Slow Cook Spag Bol

Slow Cook Spag Bol

Spaghetti Bolognese is my go to comfort food, even if it bears little if any resemblance to its Italian ancestor!  Like most of my favourite dishes it started off as a hand-me-down recipe from Mum, and over the years I’ve added to it, and taken away from it (pancetta, I’m looking at you!), until it’s settled down to this recipe.

In an ideal world, make it the day before and let it develop overnight.  But it’s such a mood thing for me that I usually cook it and eat it the same night, and it tastes just fine.  Also freezes really well for another day.

So if you’re ever looking for a hug in a bowl, allow me to heartily recommend this 🙂

Slow-Cooked Spag Bol
Serves 4
My take on a classic British favourite, and my first go to dish when I need comfort in a bowl.
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Cook Time
2 min
Cook Time
2 min
You’ll need
  1. 500g mince beef
  2. 1 medium white onion, diced
  3. 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
  4. 1 pack of chestnut mushrooms, diced
  5. 1 can of tomatoes
  6. 2 tbsp tomato purée
  7. 1 beef stock cube / pot
  8. 2-3 bay leaves
  9. Small glass or mug of milk
  10. Worcestershire sauce
  11. Balsamic vinegar
  12. Olive oil for cooking
  13. Spaghetti
  14. Optional extras: Parmesan cheese, Tobasco
Prep to do before you start cooking
  1. Dice the onions and mushrooms, and mince the garlic. Simples!
Cook!
  1. Heat some oil in the pot and cook off the onions and garlic on a medium heat until the onions start to look transparent.
  2. Add the mushrooms (you might need to add a little more oil if it starts to get a bit dry) and once they've cooked down too, remove the lot to a bowl.
  3. In the same pot, brown the mince. I find the best way is to push the mince down until it covers the entire base of the pan with no gaps, this helps it to brown rather than broil. Once one side is browned, flip the mince over to cook off the other side.
  4. Turn the heat up to high and tip in the milk, and keep the heat up until the milk has all soaked in to the mince (the milk really helps to tenderise the mince).
  5. Turn the heat back down to medium and squeeze in about half a tube of tomato purée. Stir it all in before adding the onions, garlic and mushrooms back into the pot.
  6. Then, add the can of tomatoes and the stock cube and give it all a good stir. (fifi's top tip - If your canned tomatoes are whole I recommend draining the tomato juice into the pot first, then take a tomato and holding it over the pot squish hard in your hand and drop whatever is left into the sauce. Repeat until all the tomatoes are squished, it's almost as satisfying as popping bubble wrap!! Be warned, though, as the tomatoes do have a tendency to kick back and end up on your clothes if you squish too hard.)
  7. If there’s not a lot of liquid then add some water, about 1/3rd of the empty can of tomatoes.
  8. Season! Salt and pepper, bay leaves, a splash of balsamic vinegar (the sweetness cuts the tinniness that you sometimes get with tomatoes), and a dash (or ten!) of Worcestershire sauce. This last is really a personal taste thing. Me, I like LOADS of Worcestershire sauce so there’s no such thing as too much of it, but it’s easier to add more than remove what you've put in, so start with a little and taste it and work up to the perfect amount of dash for you.
  9. Once it’s all bubbling away, turn the heat right down to the lowest setting and put a lid on it for 1.5 hours, stirring and tasting to check the seasoning every half hour or so.
  10. Take the lid off for the last 30 minutes. If it starts to look a bit dry then add a little hot water. If it looks too wet then turn the heat up a little.
  11. Serve on spaghetti with a generous grating of parmesan. And if you like a little heat in your food, try adding a couple of dashes of Tobasco to the spaghetti. I’m sure it’s the last thing an Italian would add to their ragu, but I’ve been Tobasco-ing mine since I was a kid and couldn't eat Spag Bol now without the hot red stuff!
Adapted from Mum's recipe
Adapted from Mum's recipe
fifigoesnom https://www.fifigoesnom.com/