"Dhum" Kosha Lamb

A community recipe by abdulmismail

Not tested or verified by Nigella.com

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Introduction

While everyone else was brining their turkey, I thought “let’s be stereotypical and make a lamb curry for Christmas Day.”

I first cooked something similar 30 years ago, during my time as an undergraduate at Kingston Polytechnic and as delicious as it was, I have no idea why I never cooked it again until now.

However, on this occasion, I tried an entirely different method of cooking. I, as I’m sure you, absolutely love biryani – which employs a method called “dhum” (the Bengali word for “steam”). The ‘correct’ way to ensure the steam is locked in, is to seal the lid with dough but the convenient way is to simply use aluminium foil. Either way works with this dish. But rather than add flavoured rice as one would do with a biryani, I cooked the lamb and potatoes on its own and prepared the rice separately.

My oh my. This dish was absolutely incredible. Served with rice (cooked with petit pois) or naan, the enhanced spicy flavour was a joy to behold. I sincerely hope you agree.

Ingredients

Serves: 6

Core Ingredients

1 kilogram lamb pieces
¾ kilogram new potatoes

Spices and Herbs

1 teaspoon chilli powder (heaped)
1½ teaspoons ground turmeric
2 teaspoons paprika (heaped)
1 teaspoon madras curry powder (heaped)
¾ teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin (heaped)
1 teaspoon garam masala (heaped)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper (heaped)
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 heaped tablespoons fenugreek leaves

Base Ingredients

2 large shallots
5 cloves of garlic (peeled and sliced thinly)
5 centimetres ginger (chopped)
4 fresh green chillies (seared)
5 heaped tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)
1 tin plum tomatoes (400 grams)
1 bunch fresh coriander (chopped)

Whole Spices

4 medium cinnamon sticks
6 green cardamom (pressed open)
4 bay leaves
8 whole cloves
1 nutmeg
1 star anise
1 large black cardamom
3 medium mace

Method

"Dhum" Kosha Lamb is a community recipe submitted by abdulmismail and has not been tested by Nigella.com so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe.

NOTE: Consider using the same pan (e.g. a medium sized stock pot) to cook lamb on the stove as you’ll put in the oven.

Place raw lamb in large bowl, add about 3 teaspoons of salt and submerge in cold water.
Drain after soaking lamb for 10 minutes.
Add all the “spices and herbs” onto the now drained lamb and mix thoroughly.
Place cling film over the large bowl and marinate overnight.
Dice shallots, slice garlic, chop ginger (remove peel with a spoon) and sear green chillies (removing the stalk).
Add ghee to the pan and cook on high heat until the ghee liquifies.
Add all the shallots, garlic, ginger and green chillies and fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add all whole spices and continue to stir for an additional 5 minutes.
Pour the tin of plum tomatoes into the pan and use a potato masher to pulverise the plum tomatoes.
Continue to cook on high heat for 5 more minutes.
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees centigrade.
Add the marinated meat into the pan, folding into the sauce and cook on high heat for yet another 5 minutes.
Place lid on pan but stir occasionally.
While the lamb is cooking on high heat, cut new potatoes in half, rinse and add to the meat, ensuring that all potatoes are covered in the sauce. My preference is to leave the skin on the potatoes in which case you may wish to scrub the exterior with a brush under cold running water before cutting in half.
Turn off the heat from the stove, add the potatoes into the pan and stir thoroughly.
Carefully place aluminium foil on top of the pan and secure lid in place. Use gloves to avoid getting your hands burned.
Reduce oven temperature to 220 degrees centigrade and bake the lamb/potatoes for 1 hour. If you’d like the lamb to break apart in your fingers and the potatoes to be incredibly fluffy, you could bake for 1.5 hours.
Remove stock pot from the oven.
Rinse, fold and squeeze fresh coriander stalks, dice and sprinkle over dish.