Madras Meat Curry

A hot, spicy curry which can be made with either lamb or beef. Note: To make it less hot you can decrease or omit the number of whole chillies and/or the ground chilli. Handy hint: if you find that once cooked your curry dishes are too hot for your liking, try adding plain (not low fat) yogurt or cream to your dish to tone the heat down. The chilli compound responsible for the burning sensation in your mouth dissolves in fat rather than water, so a yogurt-based accompaniment or drink (such as lassi) will reduce the heat.

Serves	: 4
Cooking Time	: 1 hour 15 minutes including preparation time

Ingredients

1 lb / 450g lamb or beef cut into one inch cubes
2 large onions finely sliced
4 cloves of garlic crushed
Juice of 1/2 a lemon (to taste)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 pint / 570ml water or stock
salt to taste

Herbs & Spices

3 Cardamom Whole
2 Bay Leaves
1 tbsp Cumin Ground
1 tbsp Turmeric
1/2 tsp Fenugreek Ground
1/2 tsp Pepper Black Ground
1/2 tsp (or to taste) Chilli Ground
4 (or to taste) Chillies Whole
2 tbsp Coriander Ground

Cooking Instructions

Mix the cumin, coriander, fenugreek and turmeric with the crushed garlic and rub well into the diced meat. Leave to marinate whilst you gently fry the onions in 1/3 of the oil until golden brown. Set the onions aside. Fry the meat in the remaining oil along with the whole chillies, bay leaves and cardamoms until the spices turn a rich brown colour.

Replace the fried onions in the pan with the meat and stir in one pint of water or stock. Bring to boil and simmer gently until the meat is tender. Add more water or stock if required. The sauce should be thick and coat the pieces of meat. When the meat is cooked and the sauce rich, stir in the lemon juice (adjust quantity if necessary to taste) and season.

Serve with boiled rice.