My husband has been talking about last night's dinner all morning. This recipe is in the latest issue of Saveur, and it is indeed one of the best Indian dishes I've ever made. I had most but not all of the ingredients, so some substitutions were required, plus I thought using and resuing a blender as I did bested their one use of a food processor. I'll include my changes in red. The temp on this was way up, not Paul Winalski-hot but Jenise-hot, which is fairly hot but not so incendiary as to render the rose we drank with the dish completely tasteless or leave our mouths on fire for hours afterward.
SERVES 4–6
Ingredients
6 dried Kashmiri chiles or pasilla chiles, stemmed
3 guajillo chiles plus 1 medium mild red bell pepper (cuz I had one that was getting soft, so why not
2 small red Thai chiles or 1 red jalapeño, stemmed
2 tblsp Aleppo pepper
2 lb. lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 2″ pieces
1 tbsp. black peppercorns
used green because I love the way they soften in stews)
4 green cardamom pods
1 stick cinnamon
¼ cup canola oil
1 tsp. kala jeera (black cumin seeds)
10 cloves garlic, mashed into a paste
2 Indian or regular bay leaves
¼ cup tamarind paste
Juice of one orange with 1 tsp sugar
3 tbsp. dried mint
1 tbsp. red chile powder, such as cayenne
did not use, the two chilis above provided all the heat needed
Kosher salt, to taste
Instructions
1. Heat a 6-qt. saucepan over medium-high. Cook dried chiles until lightly toasted, 1–2 minutes. Transfer to a food processor; add fresh chiles and 1 cup water. Purée until smooth and return to pan. I used a blender, which came in handy again in step 2 belowAdd lamb, peppercorns, cardamom, cinnamon, and 3 cups wateradded only 2 cups additional, was plenty; boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, covered, until lamb is very tender, about 1 hour. Transfer lamb mixture to a bowl.
2. Wipe pan clean; heat oil over medium-high. Cook cumin seeds, garlic, and bay leaves until seeds pop, 1–2 minutes. Add reserved lamb mixture, the tamarind paste, 1 tbsp. mint, the chile powder, and salt; boil. Reduce heat to medium; cook until thickened, about 1 hour. Garnish with remaining mint. I cooked the initial lamb mixture as prescribed. I then toasted the garlic and added it to my blender with a ladle full of the red chile sauce including every one of the cardamom pods and some fresh mint; I then toasted the kala jeera seeds and added everything back to the lamb pot and continued cooking as per the recipe.