Gosht Chettinad

Friday night is curry night. This is a hot lamb dish, sour with tamarind, based on a house special  from Kensington’s Bombay Brasserie. It was restaurant to the stars in the 1980s. Guests included Bruce Springsteen, John McEnroe, Goldie Hawn, Ian Botham, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Helena Bonham-Carter and the Prince of Wales. It’s had its heyday but I found their cookbook in a 2^nd hand bookshop years ago. The eating is still good.

1tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion, finely sliced

1 tsp turmeric

Salt to taste

900g boneless lamb, cubed

3 tbsp tamarind paste

Chopped coriander leaves to garnish.

For the Masala

50g desiccated coconut (or better ¼ of a fresh one grated but hey, it’s February)

8 black peppercorns

8 dried chillies

6 cloves garlic

1cm piece cinnamon stick

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

¼ tsp brown mustard seeds

This is a Southern Indian dish – fairly hot but it’s fine Moghul cooking. Lowell is up for the weekend. We have some Bhangra playing slightly louder than we should have. He’s making the Masala. Dry frying all the Masala ingredients except the garlic. Once we can smell them start to roast, he’s putting them into a coffee grinder to process to a fine powder. I keep a coffee grinder just for spices – they would all taste of coffee otherwise. Sometimes a pestle and mortar are good when a bit of rough is called for but that’s not what’s needed here.

Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole and fry off the onion. Crush the garlic and add that. When the onion starts to brown, stir in the turmeric, salt and the Masala mix. Add the lamb and fry, stirring often for about 20 minutes.

Once it’s browned and the juices are drying off, pour in just enough water to cover. Pop the lid on and simmer until the lamb is tender – half an hour or so. Add the salt and the tamarind and simmer for another 30 minutes – this time looking to reduce the sauce until it’s thick. If you like sour tastes, increase the tamarind. I like it but Lowell hasn’t heard of tamarind and isn’t sure.

Meanwhile get some plain Basmati rice going in the rice cooker.  It’s been cooking for an hour and we still haven’t stopped talking – we’ve only been apart for a week. It’s been a freezing week so this should warm us both up.

When ready to serve, sprinkle with the coriander and some sharp Indian pickle on the side. I love garlic pickle but you need a specialist Asian grocer for that. Lime pickle is also good and is available everywhere.

It turns out Lowell does like tamarind. I’m going to buy him a couple of blocks this weekend and show him how to make the best recipe for Tamarind chutney that I’ve come across so far. When hunting in Asian grocers, it’s Hindi name is Imli. It's an acquired taste but once hooked, there's no real substitute. I said it was curry night but actually it's Moghul Prince night. We're eating on the floor, on big cushions. We've changed the CD to a Ghazal recital. It's just about possible to forget it's February in North London.