Mutton rogan josh

Before you start

• a heavy pot with a lid
• about an hour and a half, most of it unattended

Ingredients

Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 350glamb shoulder — mutton on the bone is the original, and worth the extra half hour
• 60gbasmati rice
• 80gnatural yoghurt
• 1½ tbspghee
• 2 tbspkashmiri chilli powder — the colour is theirs and the heat is not — ordinary chilli powder here makes a much hotter, much redder mistake
• 1 tbspground fennel, ginger and cardamom
• 1 tbspblack cardamom, cloves and cinnamon
• 1 pinchasafoetida
• 1 handfulcoriander
• to tastesalt

Method

7 steps

1. chop · 6m

   Lamb into large pieces, on the bone wherever the butcher allows. Small pieces dry out across ninety minutes; big ones simply give in.

2. fry · 15m

   Whole spices and the asafoetida into hot ghee for seconds, then the meat browned hard in two batches. A crowded pan greys the lamb instead of colouring it, and that colour is flavour you cannot get back later.

3. fold · 3m

   Chilli powder slaked into a little cold water and added off the heat. Thrown dry into hot ghee it scorches, and burnt kashmiri chilli is bitter for the rest of the evening.

4. fold · 8m

   Yoghurt beaten smooth and added a spoon at a time, each absorbed before the next. That is the entire gravy — a Kashmiri rogan josh has no onion and no tomato in it at all.

5. simmer · 1h 20m walk away

   Water to barely cover, lid on, the lowest heat, until the meat gives under a spoon and the sauce has reduced to something that clings to it.

6. boil · 15m walk away

   Rice on near the end: rinsed, twice its volume of water, lid, lowest heat.

7. finish · 5m

   Ground fennel and ginger in for the last few minutes, then salt and coriander. Red oil sitting on the surface is what the name is about, and it should be there.