BG's Lamb Pathia

[Bittergourd]

Lamb Pathia
TA-style pathia with smooth sauce and no chunky vegetables. Colour comes from the Kashmiri chilli powder.
Serves 2

INGREDIENTS (all tsp, except lemon juice, are rounded)
400g pre-cooked lamb chunks
45ml oil
2 whole cloves
2 tsp mix powder
2 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
0.66 tsp salt
1 tsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
2 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
500ml base gravy
4 tsp mango chutney
3 tsp tomato ketchup
4 tsp tamarind sauce (East End, mild)
3 tsp lemon juice



METHOD
Heat and simmer the base gravy in a small pan

Heat 45ml oil on medium heat in a large frying pan or wok
Bash the cloves and add to oil
Add spices, garlic, ginger, methi, salt - fry 30 seconds
Add a couple of ladles of base gravy and let it bubble and spit for a minute
Add lamb
Add mango chutney, tomato ketchup, tamarind sauce, lemon juice
Add remaining gravy
Give it a good stir and cook 3 minutes
You may wish to "rescue" the cloves before serving as some find them unpleasant to bite on

[Peripatetic Phil]

"Bash the cloves and add to the oil" is an interesting (and unusual, as far as I know) way to start a BIR dish.  May I ask what led you to that idea, BG ?
** Phil.

[Bittergourd]

I bash the cloves to let the aromatic flavour out more quickly in the hot oil; I'm not cooking them with star anise, cinnamon stick, other whole spices etc. as per traditional Indian just going for a flavour hit quickly.

[Peripatetic Phil]

OK, interesting.  I find cloves too strong for my taste, so use at most one or two in a pulao; I am not sure what my reaction would be to finding the flavour in the curry itself.

** Phil.