Madhur Jaffrey’s Spiced Yogurt Leg of Lamb

A couple of weeks ago in Bristol I was sniffing around St Nicks Market bookstore and picked up a copy of Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery , this was a book that sat beside Delia in my house growing up indeed her first television series was broadcast in 1982 and her books remain classics with easy to follow but I am assured authentic recipes.

Just like me Madhur Jaffrey learnt to cook from her mother,  though not from watching her in the kitchen as I did , but through a maternal correspondence course neccessitated by Madhur’s arrival in London  homesick and unable to cook.

My parents were adventurous eaters but we didn’t really have takeaways til I was in my teens so I know my first experiences of curry would have been home cooked, nowadays it’s easy to find all the ingredients in the supermarket back then it was trip to places called Sunflower Wholefoods for scoops of lentils and spices.

Perhaps it is a sign of the variety in modern home cookery but the ingredients for this dish are all staples in my  cupboard, my only alteration was not to include ground almonds, Nick is not keen on nutty tastes with meat.

This dish was fantastic , I think it would BBQ well too , and has been lovely cold in wraps with a little cucumber and yogurt. I cannot wait to try some more recipes from the book that should become a well thumbed favourite

Madhur Jaffrey’s Spiced Yogurt Leg of Lamb

1 leg of lamb 1.5kg
4 large onions
8 cloves of garlic
4 thumbs of ginger
4 fresh green chillis
500ml of plain yogurt
2 tbsp of cumin seeds
4 tsp of coriander seeds
1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp of tumeric
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of garam masal
5 tbsp of vegetable oil
1/2 tsp of cloves
16 cardamon pods
2 inch stick of cinammon
10 black peppercorns

1. Trim any skin off the lamb leg.
2. Place the leg in a baking dish in a large dish.
3. Blend half the onions, garlic,  ginger,  chillis and 3 tbsp of yogurt and blend together
4. Mix with the remainder of the yorgurt, add the blended paste ,tumeric, cumin,  coriander cumin and salt
5. Slash the lamb and rub over the paste
6. Refridgerate for 24 hours
7. Remove from the fridge and let the meat come to room temperature.
8. Place an onion thickly sliced under the lamb
9. Preheat the oven to 200degC
10. Heat the oil and fry the cloves cardomon cinamons and peppercorns for a few seconds
11. Pour the hot spiced oil over the lamb
12. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 1.5 hours
13. Then remove the foil and bake for a further 45 minutes
14. All the meat to rest in the dish for 15 minutes this will mean you can spoon of ant fat that rises
15. Serve sliced with plenty of the sauce

Makes for heavenly leftovers warmed through with a little plain yogurt