Lamb Vindaloo

Photo: flickr user jvree

Ingredients

2 pounds Lamb, cubed

2 tablespoons Coriander seed

1 tablespoon Cumin seed

2 pounds Tomatoes, crushed

14 Garlic cloves, crushed

6 Bay leaves

Ginger (fresh), 2 inches, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon Black pepper, ground

1/2 teaspoon Cardamon seed

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Cloves

1/2 teaspoon Cayenne

2 teaspoons Mustard seed, ground

1 tablespoon Turmeric

1 cup Wine vinegar

2 mediums Onions

2 mediums Potatoes

2 tablespoons Butter

Preparation

Lightly roast the cumin seed and coriander seed by frying with no oil for a minute or so, stirring constantly. Grind these and combine them into a paste with the other spices, the garlic, ginger and the vinegar. Add the lamb to the marinade and mix well. Refrigerate for 3-24 hours while mixing every few hours as convenient.

Finely chop the onions and potatoes and saute them for 5 minutes in the butter.

Add lamb and spice paste and simmer over low heat for half an hour. The marinating does add a lot of flavor and makes the meat much more tender.

This can be skipped if need be.

NOTES:* A spicy hot Indian lamb dish - Very loosely based on Dharamjit Singh's recipe in "Indian Cookery: A Practical Guide." Most restaurants that serve this dish pronounce it vinDAloo, with the stress on the second syllable.

Difficulty: easy (though it's easy to burn the spices while roasting them).

Time: 1 hour preparation, 1 day marinating, 1 hour cooking.

Precision: approximate measurement OK.