Kashmiri lamb in red chile sauce
A deliciously spicy, fork-tender lamb is braised in Indian/Kashmiri spices for a wonderful one-pot meal for entertaining or a special meal at home.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 dried Kashmiri or pasilla chiles, broken
- 1 red Thai or Anaheim chile. stemmed and seeded
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 t black cumin seeds, kala jeera or regular cumin seeds
- 10 garlic cloves, mashed
- 4 lamb shoulder chops (about 2 3/4 pounds)
- Kosher salt
- Pepper
- 1 T black peppercorns
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 2 T tamarind paste or concentrate
- 4 T dried mint, divided
- 1 T red chili powder
- 1 handful fresh mint, roughly chopped
Instructions
- In a large Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pan toast dried chiles over medium high heat for 1 -2 minutes to bring out their flavor. Put the toasted chiles in a blender or food processor, along with the Thai or Anaheim chile and 1 cup of water. Puree until smooth. Set aside.
- In the same pan, over medium-high heat, toast the black cumin and bay leaves stirring so they don’t burn until they release their aroma, about 1-2 minutes. Add mashed garlic and continue cooking briefly, about another minute. Stirring so the garlic doesn’t burn. Remove from pan and set aside.
- In the same pan, add 2 T olive oil and heat over medium high flame. Season the lamb on all sides with kosher salt and pepper. Add to the hot oil and sear on all sides, for about 5 minutes.
- Add the blended chile mixture to the lamb, along with the peppercorns, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 1 hour.
- Add tamarind paste, 2 T dried mint and chili powder and stir to combine. Continue cooking for another hour until lamb is fork tender.
- Remove lamb from the sauce to a serving platter and keep warm. Remove the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, bay leaves and any residual bones from the sauce. Turn the heat up and reduce sauce to about 2/3 cup. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour the lamb over the sauce and garnish with remaining dried mint and fresh mint.