Tuesday 17 September 2013

Lamb Dhansak

 Taken from the BBC Good Food website with a few tweaks. This recipe really is as good as the takeaway version!

Serves 4
Extra Easy - 0 syns

Ingredients
100g red lentils
500g butternut squash, peeled and chopped into chunks
2 onions roughly chopped
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp turmeric
1½ tsp ground cumin
1½ tsp ground coriander 
4 cardamom pods, squashed
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
400ml stock (chicken, lamb or vegetable)
 400g lean diced lamb
thumb-sized piece root ginger, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2-3 green chillies, sliced (take out the seeds if you don't want it too hot)
small bunch coriander, chopped
1 tsp garam masala 
steamed basmati to serve
Method 
1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Put the lentils, squash, onion, turmeric and tinned tomatoes into a sauce pan and pour enough stock to just cover everything. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils are tender.
3. Spray a pot (that can be used in the oven such as Le Creuset) with frylight and heat. Brown the lamb in batches until it has browned all over. Remove the lamb and add the spices to the pan, then add the ginger, garlic and chillies and cook for 2 minutes. Add the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, lamb, lentils and squash and 200ml stock (top up with hot water if short of 200ml).
4. Put the lid on the pot and cook in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes or until the lamb is completely tender and the sauce thickened. Stir in the garam masala and coriander then serve with boiled rice.