Tandoori Chicken, for the calorie-conscious

Hell isn't merely paved with good intentions; it's walled and roofed with them. Yes, and furnished too. – Aldous Huxley

I had made myself (and you) a promise in the new year. I was going to post more often. I guess I am on my way to hell, unless I soon rectify it. 

I suppose, if I do have an excuse it would be that I have been on an extremely low-calorie diet. I’ve been experimenting a bit more than usual with trying to get maximum flavour into minimum food, sometimes with spectacular failure. 

The mixed marinade.

So there’s been recipes that were either uninspired or not fit to ever make again – let alone post. Hooray for memorably bad meals!! Not.

But every once in a while you dig up a gem. And if you're lucky you only have to swap out one ingredient. Like full fat for low fat yogurt. 

Chicken is the dieters friend once the skin and fat are removed, unlike beef and even pork. I’m learning, slowly, how to "low-cal interpret" the things I eat. I’m not starving, but I do watch my in-take, and evening snacks are definitely (definitely) O-U-T.

Seal and let the chicken marinate for
one day. There's enough marinade for
four breasts, if you would like.

Here's a little diet factoid for you. Two teaspoons of butter (70 cal) have fewer calories than grape seed oil (80 cal) and about the same number as olive oil (65 cal). 

So don't feel you have to ditch butter on a low calorie diet. Just everything in moderation. Oscar Wilde added "including moderation." I tend to concur.

For your edification, I have broken out the calories per ingredient in this dish. Knock on wood, but I have had success since starting my calorie death watch about a month ago. I have dropped slightly over 8 pounds. No time to quit now. 10-15 more to go!

The size of your chicken breast will determine the end calorie count. Eat a monster and you get monster calories... makes sense, right?

The accompaniment for this dish is a Raita, made with yogurt-marinated onion, tomato, cucumber, and cumin. Very fresh and delcious against the spiciness of the chicken. Keep in mind, you're not consuming all of the marinade, probably 1/4 of it per chicken breast.

And, just so you know, I have about 4 more recipes lined up. So heaven’s getting closer all the time.

Tandoori Chicken
Prep: overnight  |  Bake: 20 min  |  Serves 2
2 medium chicken breasts, skinless and boneless 6oz = 300 cal
1/2 cup low-fat greek style yogurt 125 cal
2 tbsp lemon juice 8 cal
1 tsp ground garlic 5 cal
1 tsp ground ginger 2 cal
1 tsp ground cumin 8 cal
1/2 tsp ground cardamom 3 cal
1/2 to 1 tsp cayenne pepper 3-6 cal
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper 8 cal
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 1.5 cal
6-8 drops each, red and yellow food colouring (optional, but a good addition)

Mix all the ingredients of the marinade in an electric blender or a food processor and process until thoroughly puréed. Pour the marinade over chicken, toss and rub, to coat thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place chicken in a single layer on foil. Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes, turning once and basting with marinade juices  until cooked.

For a low calorie accompaniment for 2, serve Raita: mix 1/2 a sliced field cucumber, 1 sliced medium onion, and 1 diced plum tomato with 1/2 cup yogurt and 1 tsp cumin seed. Let sit for 1 hour, or overnight in the refrigerator, before serving.

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Green Curry Chicken

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history. – Aldous Huxley

The kitchen is a classroom full of lessons – some hard, some not so hard. But every time you cook it’s a learning experience.

For example, here’s a few of my favourites:

A good instant-read thermometer is a “must” in the kitchen. It saves you from ruining a good cut of meat. No one likes raw chicken, no one likes dry steak and no one likes to waste money.

Never add all the salt you think you need while cooking soup, stew or sauce. Each reduces and run the real chance of being saltier than you want.

When you’re in the grocery store, think ahead. How many ways can you use an ingredient? This is important for two reasons. If you are a 2-person household you won’t use many ingredients up in one meal. It also gives you flexibility in what kind of meals you can make. Never underestimate the variety of recipes you can make with a single ingredient. (e.g. you can put avocado in chocolate pudding!!)

“Lite” coconut milk has less coconut fat (ergo more water) than its non-lite counterpart. You will be reducing your sauce forever to get the consistency you want. Think regular milk and cream. You need the additional fat to make a luxurious sauce. So suck it up. East sensibly another night. One meal will not pack 20 pounds on you. I guarantee it.

All these lessons (except for the first one) come into play in this recipe. There’s no worries that your chicken won’t be cooked after simmering for 30 minutes. But the coconut one is of particular importance.

I have found gold, literally, in the coconut milk I use. It’s Rooster Brand® Gold Label coconut milk. It even says it on the label: ideal for cooking. You can get it at the Superstore right alongside the red label Rooster Brand®. It costs no more than any other and is about half again as thick. This is exactly what you want when reducing a sauce. 

And remember the sauce and salt lesson. “Taste for salt and adjust” are some of the best directions that can be written in a recipe.

Thinking ahead – like when you purchase cilantro – is also important. Nobody uses a whole bunch of cilantro at once unless they're making a pesto. This holds true for other ingredients too, like vegetables. 

Roasting squash for 2 people? Do the whole thing and then reserve what you don't eat for squash ravioli, or even a squash pasta sauce. Think ahead. It saves you money and keeps variety on your plate.

Everything you encounter teaches you something. It’s how you apply the lessons you learn that dictate success or failure, in the kitchen or in life.

Green Curry Chicken

Prep: 10 min  |  Cook 45 min  |  Serves 4

4 large chicken legs and thighs*

1 tbsp vegetable oil

salt and pepper

2 medium onions, chopped large

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 Thai bird’s eye chilli, diced

1” fresh ginger, diced

8 green cardamom pods*

1 tsp cumin seed

3” stick cinnamon

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 lime, quartered

1 medium tomato, diced

1 398 ml can thick coconut milk

1 cup chopped cilantro

salt and pepper, to taste

Heat the vegetable oil, on medium-high, in a large oven-proof pot with a cover. Cut the chicken into leg and thigh pieces and season with some salt and pepper. Starting bone side down, fry until browned on both sides, and then remove to a plate. The chicken will not be cooked through at this point. 

Fat will render out of the chicken as it fries, so you will have far more than the 1 tbsp you started with. Drain off all but 1 tbsp fat.

Add the chopped onion and sauté for 2 minutes. Then add garlic, ginger, chilli, cardamom, cumin, cinnamon and turmeric. Sauté for 2-3 minutes longer.

Next add the lime, tomato, coconut milk and cilantro. Bring the mixture to a simmer and then nestle the chicken down into the sauce. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Cook, with cover ajar, for 30 minutes on medium heat. Check and stir occasionally to prevent the sauce from sticking to the pot bottom and burning. 

Reduce the sauce slightly if desired before serving by turning the heat up. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust.

Serve with basmati rice.

* You could also substitute 8 chicken thighs (bone in, skin on). Instead of the whole cardamom pods (which can be a surprise when you bite them), substitute 1/2 tsp ground cardamom.

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Indian Spice Rubbed Chicken, and a Raita

You've got to bumble forward into the unknown. – Frank Gehry 

Have you ever bought something having no idea how or even when you will use it? Of course you have. I do it all the time, too.

Fenugreek seeds.

Luckily my purchases tend to be on the smaller side – sometimes quite small actually, in the form of spices or seeds. Thank goodness for the bulk food barn. You can give things a test drive at minimal financial cost. 

About two weeks ago I went in for something (I can’t remember what now) and came out with what I "needed," as well as several small bags of herbs and spices just for fun. I don’t seem to be able to resist them.

It’s worse when I go to ethnic groceries. Don’t leave me alone. You never know what I’ll come out with.

The last really “odd” purchase I made was a bag of dried limes. It turns out they are a staple in much Middle Eastern cuisine, after you pulverize them. You can also throw a whole one in with rice as it cooks for an extraordinary flavour.

But I digress. The weird one that made it to the checkout with me on the day in question was fenugreek. I had heard of it but had never bought it alone. It was right alongside something else I felt I needed (fennel seed for sausages, I believe).

The rub.

Coincidentally, fenugreek is an annual in the family Fabaceae (the peas). I wrote about several in yesterday’s post. Like other members, the plant has the distinctive pea flowers, small round leaves and forms seed pods. 

It is cultivated worldwide and is a common ingredient in dishes from Africa, the Middle East and India. It is in many curry blends. So you may not have bought it separately, but you’ve eaten it.

Fenugreek has a very distinctive smell and taste, right up there with cumin in my mind. You can also use several parts of the plant: the dried seeds, fresh or dried leaves, and even as a micro vegetable (sprouts).

Fenugreek has a “semisweet” aroma. It’s hard to describe. Think of being in a very good Indian restaurant. That’s as close as I can come. Be forewarned, I have read that a little fenugreek goes a long way.

The seeds are often toasted slightly to help activate the aromatic oils. If you’ve ever made your own curry blends you probably have toasted seeds yourself.

Your best friend, on the barbecue or in the kitchen.
Buy yourself an instant-read thermometer.

We’ve been using the barbecue a fair bit lately and I had some chicken in the freezer. So I thought rather than a barbecue sauce it might be nice to mix it up a little with some exotic flair.

This rub didn’t disappoint. Even before the chicken hit the grill the kitchen was filled with the most delicious Indian spice smell.

Four may seem like a lot of dried chillies, but the mix wasn’t very hot at all actually. If you want, feel free to adjust either up or down. It all depends how hot your dried chillies are, and how hot you want the rub.

I made an unbelievably simple side dish for with the chicken that helps cut spiciness. Raita is highly undervalued as a “salad” in North America in my opinion. Onion, carrot, hot pepper, yogurt and mint make a perfect foil for any hot dish. Even people who don’t like a lot of onion will love this.

I’ve given the recipe for the raita, as well the times and temperature I used to cook the chicken on the barbecue. No sense going to the expense of buying chicken breasts only to burn them!

Let the rub flavour the chicken for at least 1 hour.

Indian Spice Rubbed Chicken

4 chicken breasts, bone in, skin on

3 whole dried red chilies (about 4” long each)

5 whole cloves

2 green cardamom pods

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp whole cumin seeds

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns

1/2 tsp dried ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Combine all the whole spices in a grinder and grind until powdery. I use a coffee grinder especially set aside for spices. Minimal cost, maximum results, quickly.

Rub the spice mix onto all the surface of the chicken. Then cover and let rest on the counter for 1 hour, or refrigerate for 4-8 hours.

Heat your barbecue to about 325°F. Place the chicken pieces directly over the flame, bone side down and let cook for about 10 minutes. Then turn and do the skin side. Check periodically to ensure it’s not burning. Chicken fat tends to flare up.

The yogurt helps cool any "heat" you may find in
the main dish.

After 20 minutes, start checking the internal temperature of the thickest part of the chicken. It should read almost 180°F. It will continue to cook to proper temperature after you remove it.

You can also broil the chicken in the oven, to the same internal temperature.

Onion and Carrot Raita

Serves 4  |  Make at least 1 hour ahead

1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 large carrot, julienned

1 hot green pepper, chopped

1/2 cup plain yogurt (or 1/2 cup sour cream mixed with 1 tbsp sugar)

1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped (or 1 tbsp dried)

juice 1/2 lime

1/2 tsp salt

Mix everything together in a bowl. 

Cover and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. This allows the acid in the yogurt to mellow and soften the onion.

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Homemade Butter Chicken

"Classic." A book which people praise and don't read. – Mark Twain

Butter chicken was not a traditional homemade meal, but the invention of a restauranteur.

This is an Indian restaurant classic. I paused when I typed in the title "homemade," because it was never a homemade dish. Pair that with a recipe that has no butter in it and you have double confusion. 

This is also a repeat posting (I have a craving...). But what a repeat. This is one of the best Indian-style dished in my repertoire. Seriously.

Moti Mahal is now a chain of restaurants. This is one.
Photo: toyohara, Flickr ccl

Butter chicken, or Murgh Makhani, is an Indian dish that is now popular all over the world. The recipe, created in the late first half of the 1900s, can be traced back to a restaurant in the Indian capital of Delhi. 

According to a documentary on the Discovery Channel, butter chicken originated in a famous restaurant named Moti Mahal Delux in central Delhi, India.

The owner, Kundan Lal Gujral, is famous for inventing another "classic", tandoori chicken, as well as several other Indian dishes, including butter chicken and dal makhani. "Makhani" is a Hindustani word meaning "with butter." 

His restaurant recycled the leftover juices from making tandoori chicken as a base for a marinade, and added butter and tomato to the mix. A tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven originally used in Northern India and Pakistan for both cooking and baking.

It's interesting that two of the most world famous Indian dishes didn't have their start in country kitchens, but in the kitchen of a restaurant.

Butter chicken uses either cubed or bone-in chicken and can have a wide variety of spices often including cumin, cloves, cinnamon, coriander, pepper and fenugreek. It nearly always has yoghurt, cream and tomato paste. 

There are as many versions of butter chicken as there are cooks. I hope you like mine. It is very tasty and as far as making Indian food "from scratch" is a breeze! This one is "Cyn-endorsed" – a friend of mine from where I used to work.

Murgh Makhani

Prep: 10 min  |  Cook: 40 min  |  Serves 4

This is the sauce just after all is combined in the pot.

8 chicken thighs, skin on, bone in

1 medium onion

1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and diced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tsp cayenne

2 tsp cumin seed

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cardamom

1/2 cup coffee cream

1 cup whole fat plain yoghurt

1/2 cup tomato purée (1 small can)

juice of 1/2 lemon

salt and pepper

1 cup basmati rice

2 cups water

salt

Place the chicken thighs in a large low saucepan. Season with salt and pepper and fry both sides until golden but not completely cooked, about 10-15. This will depend on the size of your chicken thighs.

Simmer the chicken while you make the rice. The colour changes
as the dish simmers. Compare this with the top photo.

Remove the thighs to a plate and drain off all but 1 tbsp of the collected chicken fat.

Peel and halve the onions. Then take each half and cut from top to bottom to make long slices. Add the onions and chopped ginger to the pan and cook until just beginning to soften.

Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Then add the cayenne, cumin, bay leaf, cinnamon and cardamon and cook for 1 more minute.

Stir in the coffee cream and then the yogurt. Mix well. Then add in the tomato purée and lemon juice. Mix well and bring to a simmer. Nestle the chicken pieces into the sauce, cover and let cook while you make the basmati rice. The rice will take about 25 minutes.

Bring the salt and water to a boil. Add the basmati, stir and cover. Reduce heat to simmer and let cook for 15 minutes (17 minutes for brown basmati). After the water has been absorbed, remove from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Serve the chicken and sauce beside the rice.

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Quick Goan Chicken Curry

Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need. – Sarah Ban Breathnach 

Spicy but not too hot. Make sure you simmer the chicken long enough to cook it through.

It’s getting progressively more difficult to pull off any cooking at all, let alone interesting things, from my kitchen.

On Sunday we sold our kitchen table and chairs. It’s amazing how important that is to a functioning kitchen.

With the move only days away things are starting to form piles around the house: throw, keep and “maybe.” The Maybe pile is more accurately described as the “go through this and throw out what you don’t need. I don’t know what you want to keep.”

I’m married to a good man. I’m lucky, and very grateful.

Brown the onions to add flavour.

So I thought I would pull off a little chicken curry for dinner last night. It's something we both really like.

This one’s interesting. It has no tomatoes so the sauce is yellow. It’s also coconut milk based and not super hot. More spicy (cinnamon, cumin, etc.) than hot, which is always nice.

Why "quick"? Usually the chicken is marinated in a spice paste made of many of the ingredients I list. I shortened the method by combining the marinade into the dish and cooking right in the resulting sauce.

Truth be told it only has to marinate for 1/2 hour, but I was pressed for time.

Here’s a little secret. There’s three different kinds of coconut milk. Low fat, regular, and then a thicker version. The thicker one is always best to use in recipes.

You can buy it at the local Atlantic Superstore. It’s Rooster Brand Gold Label. Since it’s thicker, you don’t have to reduce it as much so you have more sauce in the end.

It’s in the aisle with the canned milk – not the imported foods. Go figure.

Give this one a try. I’m sure you’ll like it.

Slow and low simmering infuses the chicken. I removed
the skin before simmering. It's optional.

Quick Goan Chicken Curry

Prep: 5 min  |  Cook: 30 min  |  Serves 4

8 chicken things

1 tsp yellow mustard seeds 

2 medium onions, sliced

4 garlic cloves, finely sliced

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp whole cumin

1 tsp chilli pepper flakes

400ml can coconut milk

Juice of 1 lemon

salt and pepper

Place the chicken skin side up in a hot sauté pan. Let the chicken brown on the bottom until it releases. Season with salt and pepper. Turn and let brown on the skin side. The chicken will naturally release when it is ready.

Remove to a plate and drain off all but about 1 tbsp of the rendered fat.

Add the onion, garlic and mustard seeds. Let cook until the onions soften and start to brown slightly. If the mixture starts to stick add a little water and scrape the bottom. Add the paprika, cinnamon, turmeric, cardamom, cumin and chilli flakes. Cook for about 1 minute.

Add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Taste and adjust spices, salt and pepper if desired. Nestle the chicken into the sauce and squeeze in half of the lemon juice. Let cook until the sauce is reduced and the chicken finishes cooking through.

Serve with basmati rice. Just before serving squeeze a little lemon on top.

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Recipes: Yogurt Chicken and Indian Spiced Okra

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness. – Eric Hoffer 

Indian spiced yogurt make this chicken tender, moist and delicious.

If you remember, a few days ago I was lamenting about having to buy a large (750 ml) container of plain yogurt every time you need a cup for a recipe.

Before someone posts the comment, yes, I know you can get smaller (500 ml) containers, but here the price is the same as 750 ml, so it’s not very cost efficient. It makes sense to buy the larger container when with a little ingenuity you can make some really great things with that “leftover” yogurt.

Besides baked goods, my mind always thinks of Indian food for options to use leftover yogurt. One of the recipes that tops my list is yogurt marinated chicken. The acidity of the yogurt does a wonderful job of tenderizing the meat.

While the yogurt is permeating the meat any spices you put with it are doing the same. It’s so easy, too. You can mix all the ingredients right in the yogurt container and then put it (with the chicken) in a zip-lock bag.

Yogurt chicken is as easy as marinating and baking. And while it’s marinating you can turn your thoughts to what to serve with it.

I stumbled across a recipe a while back for spiced, sautéed whole okra. I had never seen an Indian okra dish before. Maybe I don’t get out enough…

Anyway… resurrecting it from memory was a little on the tricky side. I have made my own curries many times so used that as a departure point. I just dialled down the heat.

Why the quote at the top of the page? Finding okra became quite a search. I couldn’t find fresh okra in two grocery stores. Or canned. I finally found sliced frozen okra. What a backwater, sometimes. Yes, Halifax – I’m talking about you. 

By the time I found the okra it had become almost a contest of wills. I no longer thought it was a good idea to make the spiced okra – it was an imperative that I made it.

Mind you I only went to BOTH of the major grocery chains here. I should have went to to (the far more cosmopolitan) Pete’s Frootique. They never fail me.

Even frozen it turned out tasting very good, although I think it would have benefitted from the texture of fresh okra pods. Next time…

Enough blather. There’s two recipes, so as they say on the South Shore of Nova Scotia: “Fill you boots.”

Just lift he chicken out of the marinade, leaving whatever
clings to it on for baking.

Roast Yogurt Chicken Things

Prep: 2 min  |  Marinate: 3 or 8 hours  |  Serves 4

8 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in

1 cup plain yogurt

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice

Combine all the marinade ingredients and mix well. Place the chicken in a zip-lock and pour the marinade on top. Close the bag and rub the marinade over the chicken well.

Looks good! test for doneness with a thermometer.

Marinate on the counter for 3 hours or in the refrigerator for 8.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove the chicken from the marinade and place on a rack sitting in a rimmed baking dish. This lets the heat get around all sides of the chicken as it bakes.

Bake the chicken for 30-40 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the meat reads 180°F.

Serve with basmati, naan bread and the Indian side dish of your choice. Perhaps even…

Indian Spiced Okra

Prep: 5 min  |  Cook 25 min  |  Serves 4

1/4 cup butter 

An interesting use for okra. Before this I only ever
used it in gumbo.

1 medium onion, chopped 

1 tbsp fresh ginger, chopped

1 lb sliced okra, fresh or frozen

1-1/2 tsp ground cumin 

1 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground coriander 

1/2 tsp ground black pepper 

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 375°F,

Melt the butter in a large oven-proof frying pan over medium heat. 

Add the onion and ginger and cook until the onion begins to soften. Stir in the okra, spices, pepper and salt.

 Let the mixture cook until the okra begins to brown slightly, stirring only occasionally. This will take about 5 minutes. Don't worry when the okra begins to turn "ropy." It will disappear in baking.

Place the pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

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Recipe: Lamb and Spinach Curry

Because of deep love, one is courageous. Because of frugality, one is generous. Because of not daring to be ahead of the world, one becomes the leader of the world. – Lao Tzu

Lamb curry. Delicately spice with just enough "heat."

A few nights ago the spouse and I were at the grocery store lusting over the lamb chops.

We were bemoaning the fact that we hadn’t had lamb in a very long time. It’s just too expensive. So we passed it by. I can’t remember what we did buy, but I bet it was either on sale or marked down.

The curry before adding the spinach.

I don’t mean to come across as complaining, but it seems wages stay the same and everything else around us goes up in cost.

I guess I am complaining. So what? We all should. It seems corporate salaries and bonuses aren't subject to the same flatline. And don't give me any of that crap that they're worth it.

Do more with less is the mantra all of us plebeians are fed daily from our news outlets. We’ll I’m getting fed up with that, actually. Something’s got to give. Can anyone say "go postal?"

I wouldn't actually do that. But less expendable income has made me a much more savvy shopper. I shop thinking of at least two meals ahead, if not three. What can I buy on sale and use several times over several meals? It’s a mindset that wasn’t all that difficult to get in to once I started.

If you’re a regular reader you probably think my grocery bill is astronomical. But that’s not the case at all. I always shop what is on sale (or better, marked down) and then cook it within a day or two. I swear.

My frugality has become so well known that one of my co-workers saw me come in with grocery bags after lunch a few days ago and asked “what was on sale today?”. I was proud to say a full side of steelhead trout ($6.60, PLUS 30% off) and—are you ready— lamb. (Why else would I be writing this post, right?)

Ready to serve. The sauce has thickened and
the spinach is in and wilted down.

Yes, lamb. What a coincidence, eh? I picked up a package of loin chops (30% off again) and three regular chops. In total, about 1 pound of meat for approximately $7.00. That’s a good deal.

Lamb curry is one of my favourite Indian dishes, and I hadn’t made it in a long, long time. I love the combination of aromatic spices, the flavourful lamb and earthy spinach. It all just “fits” together so well.

Lamb, goat and pork are common curry ingredients in India. If you remember, cows are sacred to Hindus so beef is a no-no for them. And if you’re Muslim (or Jewish), pork is out, but beef is OK… To each his own, as they say. Vive et alteros vivere permitte (live and let live).

As a “lapsed Baptist” (I love that phrase) I’ll eat just about anything that crosses my path.

Lamb curry or “lamb” curry...

As I was researching about lamb curry (to back up my blather) I came across an interesting tidbit I thought I would pass on from The Telegraph newspaper in the UK, dated April 30, 2012. 

Some of their investigative reporters did a study/sting operation in the Spring of this year (2012) where they purchased lamb curries from 20 different vendors. They then took them to a lab and tested for actual lamb content. 

Believe it or not, out of the 39 individual dishes they purchased, none of them had just lamb meat, but included a mixture of much cheaper cuts of pork, beef and/or chicken combined with lamb. Incredibly, four of the total contained NO lamb at all!

This is not a good thing, because this means people are consuming meats that they are either prohibited from eating due to religious beliefs or because of health restrictions.

Can you imagine? Capitalism at its finest. Let’s cut every corner we can. That’s what’s wrong with the world. Profit trumps the basic “love thy neighbour as thyself.” I’m not particularly religious, but come on, people. We have to have some basic respect for each other.

It seems you can’t trust anyone. Where’s my cave??? At least if you cook at home you know what goes into your food…unless it’s genetically modified (GMO). I’m sure we’ll all die of some exotic, bizarre, new diseases because of those corporate-greed-driven (insert expletive here) business “men.”

But back to the recipe. This one’s a keeper. the next time you find lamb on sale pick it up and try this recipe. To round out the meal, serve with basmati rice and raita (recipe here) to feed four.

Lamb and Spinach Curry

Prep: 10 min  |  Cook: 35 min  |  Serves 4

1 tbsp vegetable oil, or ghee

This is amazing stuff.

1 lb cubed lamb meat

8 oz package spinach

1 large onion, quartered

3 tbsp ginger, chopped

8 garlic, chopped (about 1/4 cup)

2 thai red chillies, chopped with seeds

2 tsp cumin, ground

2 tsp cardamom, ground

2 tsp white sugar

1 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp cinnamon, ground

1/2 tsp red chilli flakes

2 bay leaves

1 cup beef broth

1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

4 tomatoes, diced

1 tbsp tomato paste

salt to taste

Heat the oil over high heat in a wide sauté pan or Dutch oven. Fry the onion, ginger, garlic and Thai chillies until the onions start to brown.

Add meat and cook until slightly browned, about 3 minutes.

Add the cumin, cardamom, sugar, turmeric, cinnamon, chilli flakes and bay leaves.* Stir and cook for 1 minute. Add the beef broth, black pepper, tomatoes and tomato paste.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and cook uncovered for 20 minutes. Stir to ensure the mixture doesn’t stick.

After 20 minutes add the spinach and cover the pot. Let it cook covered until the spinach is wilted, about 5 minutes. Then uncover, stir together and let cook for a further 10 minutes. The sauce will thicken.

Taste for salt and adjust.

* If you’re not into making your own curry mixture (although it is easy) substitute 2 tablespoons of your favourite curry powder mixture for the cumin, cardamom, turmeric, cinnamon, chilli flakes and bay leaves. If it’s hot curry powder, exclude the two Thai chillies as well. Still use the sugar, though.

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