Lamb in Fragrant Spinach Sauce

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I recently bought a cookbook judging merely by its cover, which looked absolutely delish and mouth watering. Now as I was browsing the recipes on my kitchen island, my hubby glanced and said "Another cookbook?" when he actually meant "Oh God another round of experiments". But I quickly put his doubts to rest with this recipe ;p and boy was he happy!

The cookbooks a good buy...the collection of recipes is however brief but very precise, delectable and surprisingly easy to make. Here's the cookbook by Mridula Baljekar, from the Food Lovers' Collection.

I decided to make the recipe on the cover, although it didn't turn out to be in the exact rich color, it tasted heavenly...next time I should probably put a little less spinach. Here's the list of ingredients, some of which have been altered according to my taste.

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless lamb

1/3 cup yogurt

2 tbs vinegar

2 tbs gram flour or chana besan

1 tsp turmeric

4 tbs oil

2 inch cinnamon stick

5 cloves

5 cardamoms, crushed

2 bay leaves

1 onion

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

2 tsp black cumin seeds

1 tsp red chilli powder

5-6 tomatoes, chopped

3/4 cup warm water, plus another 4 tbs

1 tsp salt to taste

1 tsp sugar

9 oz fresh/frozen chopped spinach

2 tsp ghee or butter

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 cup light cream

Method:

Take yogurt in a glass mixing bowl, add vinegar, gram flour, turmeric and beat till well blended. Remove excess fat from the lamb and add it in and let marinate for 4-5 hours.

Heat oil, fry cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, bay leaves and stir gently for a few sec's. Add the onion and fry till its tranlucent, put ginger garlic and cook for an additional 5-6 min's, until the onion is gloden brown.

Add black cumin seeds and red chilli..cook a further 5-6 min's, stirring frequently, add warm water and cook till oil seperates from the paste.

Add the marinated meat and increase the heat, until meat changes color. Sprinkle salt and sugar and the 3/4 tsp water. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for almost 1 hour.

Meanwhile blanch spinach in a large saucepan of boiling salted water and cook for 2 min's. Drain and plunge into cold water.

Heat ghee or butter in another saucepan and add ginger garlic paster and garam masala, stir until slightly brown. Drop the spinach into this spiced butter and stir to mix in thoroughly.

Add the spinach mixture to the curry, stir in the cream. Mix well and let it simmer uncovered for 2-3 min's. Once nicely mixed, remove from heat and serve.