Karahi Gosht
Ingredients
whole lamb shoulder (1.5 - 2kg) cut on the bone into large 2 inch chunks. (if you have a halal butcher near you, they’ll do this for you and other butchers should. If not, 800g of the boneless pre-diced supermarket stuff.)
1 white onion, finely sliced
4-5 tbsp neutral oil
Flakey salt
2 tbsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp coriander seeds
2 ttbsp kashmiri chilli powder
2 green chilli
4 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
thumb sized piece of ginger, finely diced
2 tbsp tomato paste
700g fresh plumb tomatoes ( as fresh as you can get them)
juice 1/2 lime
I found this recipe on an obscure blog about Pakistani culture and, to my enteral frustration, have never been able to find it again (I don’t think it was even about cooking, they just had a post like ‘and this is my family curry recipe'). That was years ago now, so I can’t absolutely promise this is true to the original. (If anyone does find it, please let me know!!)
I love the technique of creating a lamb stock, then mixing the richness of this with fresh tomatoes for brightness and acid. The original recipe just throws the tomatoes in at the end and lets them break down. This will leave you with skins in the sauce. I’m not too fussed by this, but it does bother some people. If you want to avoid this, use my ‘through a strainer’ technique below, that’s much easier than trying to peel them. (The result will taste exactly the same, just minus the skins)
Because you're essentially leaving the tomatoes raw, you want the best ones you can find. This is a fantastic way to showcase great produce - it's my favourite use of my homegrown tomatoes. Either plumb or cherry are ideal for sauces, but whatever at the supermarket or grocery store smells freshest (ie has the strongest smell of tomatoes).
This is a medium hot curry - it would have a little picture of a chilli next to it on a restaurant menu. You can also make a mild version by reducing to just 1 tbsp of Kashmiri chilli powder (and no green chilli) if you, or people you’re cooking for don’t do heat. I’ve tried it that way and it’s still very good. Conversely, I think the flavour profile here works really well with heat so you could probably take it higher if you wanted.
Serve with either naans and some sort of fresh garnish (say, coriander leaf and finely sliced white onion). I also often include a chutney or a kachumber salad on the side.
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Grind together the coriander and cumin in a pestle and mortar, you don’t need to fully turn them into powder, just break them up a bit. Toss the lamb with this and 1% salt by weight (so 15g for 1.5kg of lamb).
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Heat a large wok to high temp and add a little oil. In two batches brown off the lamb for a few minutes each, remove and set aside.
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add the onions and cook on a high heat for a few more minutes (a bit like a stir fry),
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Add the garlic, ginger, tomato paste, Kashmiri and whole green chilli, 1 tsp salt, and a splash of water and cook for another minute or so. Return the lamb to the wok and mix everything together. Cover with cold water (maybe 1.5L - enough to fully cover everything but not more)
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Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and leave cooking for two hours uncovered.
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As you get towards the end, the stock should have reduced to a few cups. If you need to, turn up to high heat and cook off most of it, stirring occasionally.
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Slice your tomatoes in half, put them into a saucepan on a high heat with a splash of water until they break down (4-5 minutes), push them through a strainer into the curry (this should catch the skins and seeds). (If you’re not bothered about skins and seeds just throw the tomatoes straight into the curry and stir fry together until they break down).
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Mix everything together. Taste, you might want a little more salt. Add the juice of the half lime, stir again and serve.