Recipe BIR Lamb Rogan Josh

[vernplum]

Parent thread: British Indian Restaurant (BIR) cooking

This dish is a great example of a BIR recipe as it's a well-known and popular British Indian restaurant dish, uses 7 of our pre-prepared BIR ingredients (3 of the powders, garlic and ginger paste, tomato paste, a precooked meat and of course, our ubiquitous Base Gravy), plus it uses the typical sequence of doing things, i.e. whole spices followed by powdered spices, G&G paste, tomato, base gravy then meat, etc..

It's based on Misty Ricardo's version from his book Curry Compendium, but I cut out a couple of ingredients (methi for one) and I cook the onion and bell pepper ahead.

Ingredients

• 1/2 medium onion, cut into largish chunks and separated
• 1 medium red bell pepper, cut into squares
• 5 cm cinnamon stick
• 1 Indian bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds
• seeds from 1 black cardamom
• 1/2 tsp cumin seed
• 1 green chili, chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp BIR Mix Powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tsp Kashmiri Chilli Powder
• 1/2 tsp BIR Tandoori Masala
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp BIR garlic & ginger paste
• 2 tbsp BIR tomato paste
• 300 ml BIR Base Gravy (diluted to a 'semi-skimmed milk' consistency
• 250g BIR precooked Lamb
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaf
• 4 cherry tomatoes quartered
• 2 tbsp plain yogurt
• 1/4 tsp BIR Garam Masala

Method

1. Gather your ingredients.
2. In a bowl, coat the cut onion and bell pepper with about 2 tbsp of vegetable oil and season with a bit of salt. Cook them in a frying pan or air-fryer until it's starting to get a bit of colour then put it in a container or a bowl with lid to let it steam itself. Set aside.
3. In a wok or large frying pan, heat about 2 tbsp of vegetable oil and 2 tbsp of ghee to medium high. Throw in your whole spices (bay leaf, cinnamon, fennel, cardamom, cumin) and let them cook up till fragrant.
4. Throw in your powdered spices along with the chopped chili, salt and pepper. Give it all a stir then add in 1-2 tbsp of water to prevent the spices from burning. Fry for about 30 seconds.
5. Add your garlic and ginger paste, tomato paste. Stir well to incorporate and fry for another 30 seconds.
6. Now add half your base gravy, give it a quick stir.
7. Add in the precooked lamb, coriander and tomatoes, stir well.
8. Now tip in your onion and bell peppers and the remainder of the base gravy.
9. Give everything a stir and turn the heat to high. Cook for two minutes, stir it again making sure to scrape the sides into the middle, then cook a further two minutes.
10. Add in the yogurt, stir well, then turn off the heat and sprinkle the garam masala.

Our mise; base gravy is at the top in the jug and has been heated in the microwave to tepid. To its right is the onion/pepper mix that's already been air-fried. Precooked lamb at the bottom left.

In some hot vegetable oil and ghee, start with whole spices and fry them to fragrant:

Powdered spices go next usually, plus a splash of water. I've added a chopped green chili.

Garlic and ginger paste, tomato paste plus a splash of water if you are using it straight from the tube like I am:

 

[vernplum]

...cont

At this point we usually add in about half the base gravy, give it a good stir and a minute's cooking. BTW do you like my Winnie The Pooh splash screen? I get them from Daiso (it's a Japanese dollar store chain). They ran out of Mickey Mouse ones.

It's 'main ingredient' time. In goes my lamb. No sitting around for 2 hours waiting for it to tenderize due to the magic of BIR precooking! (have I said that enough yet? ).

Rest of the base gravy, whack the heat on high and start to caramelize and reduce it a bit.

Finish with the yogurt and a sprinkle of garam masala. Total cooking time about 7-8 minutes.