According to Wikipedia ‘rogan’ means oil and ‘josh’ is hot (or passionate). I’m not sure whether that is hot in temperature or spice terms but either way it isn’t much of a definition. Neither Larousse nor Davidson make a contribution and none of the recipes I have been able to find call for an intense level of either form of heat or any uniform combination of spices so I reckon rogan josh is a free for all. I used our own Captain's masala curry paste but you could use a decent masala or mild curry paste instead.
Ben Watson
Ingredients - serves 4
800g diced mutton
3 tbsp masala curry paste
3 tbsp thick yoghurt
1 onion, peeled & roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
20g root ginger, peeled & chopped
3 tbsp vegetable oil
8 cardamum pods, husks removed
6 cloves
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala
good pinch of chilli flakes or chilli powder
300ml chicken stock
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1 green pepper, deseeded, cut into chunks
1 small butternut squash, peeled, deseeded & cut into 2cm dice
100g young spinach leaves
2 ripe tomatoes, desseded & cut into chunks
30g fresh coriander leaf, chopped |
Method
1 Mix curry paste and yoghurt and rub over the mutton, leaving it to marinade in the fridge for a couple of hours. Place onion, garlic and ginger in a small blender and pulse to a paste also. Lighly crush cardamum seeds with cloves and mustard seeds with pestle and mortar and set aside ready to use.
2 In a large pan, heat the oil and gently fry the onion/garlic/ginger paste for 5 minutes without browning. Now add all the spices and crushed spices and fry a further few minutes until all is smelling fragrant and then add the mutton and marinade. Stir and raise the heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes then pour in the chicken stock and bring the curry to a simmer. Cover and cook very gently for an hour, stirring occasionally.
3 Now add green pepper pieces and diced squash and continue to simmer for a further half an hour by which time the vegetables and the mutton should be tender. Finally, fold in the spinach, chopped tomato and fresh coriander - the spinach will wilt immediatley - and serve with hot flat bread or boiled rice. |
