Lamb and dhal curry

This dish is normally cooked with mutton but I use lamb instead because it cooks faster and is less tough. Unfortunately, today I overcooked the dhal which is why the curry looks mushy.

Ingredients for the lamb curry

800 gm lamb leg

1 potato (to help thicken the curry)

4 tsp chilli boh

Trim off the fat and cut the lamb into bite size pieces

Take the chili paste out of the bag whilst it is still frozen otherwise the paste will stick to the bag.

Add 2 tbsp of meat curry powder to the defrosted chili paste

Mix thoroughly

Heat some oil in the pan

Put in the chili paste and stir until it is fragrant.

If needed add a little water to prevent the chili being burnt

Put in the lamb pieces and mix thoroughly

Add enough water to partially cover the lamb

Cover and simmer on low heat until lamb is almost tender

Wash and cut the potatoes into fairly small pieces

Add the potatoes into the curry

Cover again and simmer on low heat until the potatoes are cooked

Ingredients for the dhal curry

1 1/2 cup Malawi dhal

There is no need to pre-soak this dhal and it cooks in about 20 – 30 minutes

1 tbsp chilli powder

2 sprigs curry leaves

1 star anise

1 piece cinnamon bark

6 cloves

2 cardamom seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

Asafoetida is a sulphurous, onion-smelling spice used in Indian cooking to minimise gas and indigestion problems associated with eating lentils and pulses. It has a sulphur smell which dissipates in cooking and just leaves an onion and garlic like flavour. It is mainly used with turmeric in Indian vegetarian dishes. Asafoetida comes from the sap of a plant similar to a giant fennel. The sap dries into a hard resin and it is sold in lumps or powder form.

Wash and boil the Malawi dhal with the chilli powder

Heat up 1 tbsp oil and quickly fry the mustard seeds

Put in the other aromatics and fry until fragrant

Put all the fried ingredients into the dhal curry

Add a pinch of the asafoetida powder and salt to taste

Cover and simmer on low fire until the dhal is cooked

When both curries are cooked add them together

Mix the 2 curries thoroughly

You can either serve it in the pot or transfer to a serving dish