Jono & Jules do food & wine

The best curry we’ve ever made by a mile! This was fabulous – so much lighter than takeaway and the lamb just melted. Our whole chillies kind of disintegrated into the sauce so prepare yourself for a good chilli kick. You can grind the whole spices in a mortar and pestle but we’ve invested in a little electric spice grinder which turns them into fine powder almost instantly. A microplane is the way forward for grating ginger and garlic. Two of our more successful kitchen gadgets!

Spicy lamb, tomato and coconut curry – to serve 4

• 1tbsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 15 black peppercorns
• 5cm cinnamon stick
• 4 cloves
• 500g boneless lamb shoulder, cubed
• 3 small onions, finely chopped
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 15g ginger, peeled weight, grated to a paste
• 8 fat garlic cloves, grated to a paste
• 3-6 green chillies, whole but pierced
• salt
• 2 tbsp ghee, or you can use half butter and half vegetable oil
• 200-300ml coconut milk, or to taste
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice, or to taste

Put the lamb, 2 of the chopped onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, chillies, spices and salt in a large saucepan. Add 500ml water, bring to a boil, then cover and cook gently for 45-60 minutes, or until the lamb is cooked and soft. Give it a stir every 10 minutes or so.

After about 45 minutes, melt the ghee in a small saucepan and fry the remaining onion until well browned.

Once the lamb is cooked you need to cook off all the excess moisture over a high heat, stirring often, until almost all the sauce has been absorbed by the lamb. This is called bhunoing and helps deepen the flavours (try it before and after to see the difference it makes). Add the browned onion and ghee.

Pour in the coconut milk and lemon juice, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes; the sauce should be thick and creamy. Taste and adjust the seasoning, and add lemon or coconut milk until it tastes amazing.

We served this with brown basmati rice.

(Original recipe from Anjum Anand’s I ♥ Curry, published by Quadrille)