NotCurry

Tuesday (posted Wednesday)

The young man has a friend staying for the next week or so. This is good as he has someone to speak teen to. But it does increase the food consumption. Two teens can pack away an awful lot of food. At the weekend I watched in awe as they polished off over £20 worth of raspberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants in a single sitting. The day after they consumed 2lb rhubarb and its associated crumble. And that's just puddings...Meanwhile there seems to be an intravenous drip of smoothie going into their hyper-fuelled bodies. Remind me to buy some Innocent stock. The young man thinks his appetite might still be depressed post H1N1..!

Meanwhile it is raining. It's been raining on and off since we arrived and we have not got the charcoal going once as yet. I have already cooked a leg of lamb and some kebabs that had been intended to be cooked outside but were eventually done inside. I'm pleased to report that the Risoli griddle performed well when pressed into service as a kebab grill with the young man's friend as kebab turner. Tonight, with over 750g of left-over lamb leg my thoughts turn inevitably to curry. But with last week's experience to moderate my thoughts I need to think about notcurry so as to ameliorate the young man.

Eventually I am inspired by Atul Kochhar. The wife and I have enjoyed Benares and Kochhar's subtle spicing and eclectic approach to the regional food on India provide me with the chance to make Indian food and still be able to claim this is not curry. I make 'Mamsa Ishtew' which he calls an 'aromatic stew with coconut milk'. Definitely not a curry. The recipe below is adapted from Kochar's as I started with par-cooked lamb. If you'd like to cook it from scratch, you'll need the book.

Mamsa Ishtew

750g rare roast lamb leg in cubes
300ml coconut cream
15g root ginger julienne
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt to taste

4 tbsp sunflower oil
8 garlic cloves thinly sliced
2 large onions halved and thinly sliced
3 green chillies in julienne (no seeds)

12 curry leaves
1 large star anise
5 cm cinnamon stick
4 cloves
8 cardamom pods
3 bay leaves

25 black peppercorns
1 1/2 tspn ground turmeric
3 tspn ground cumin
3 tspn ground fennel seeds

Place the coconut cream and lemon juice in a sauté pan, add the lamb and sprinkle on 3/4 of the ginger. Barely simmer (use a diffuser) for 20 minutes with the lid on.






Heat the oil in another pan. Sauté the garlic briefly then add the leaves and whole spices. Let them crackle a bit then add the onions and chillies and soften them without colouring. Add the spices and sauté for a further 10-15 minutes. Don't burn the onions.

Add this mixture to the meat and stir it in. Simmer again for 20-25 minutes. Again this should be very gentle but this time with the lid off. Garnish with the rest of the ginger and serve.

We served this with Bombay potatoes which is probably as mistake as both dishes are yellow. But it worked as notcurry and both young men woofed it down. If I had a better response to green I would probably choose to serve it with Sag Aloo.