Sri Lankan recipe for lamb curry with tamarind and coconut
- Prep Time: 80 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: Main dish
- Cuisine: Sri Lankan
Ingredients
- 800g of bite-sized chunks of lamb, trimmed of fat
- 100ml tamarind water
- 200ml coconut milk
- 2 red dried chillies (crushed)
- 1 teaspoon of fenugreek
- 4 cardamom pods
- 3 cloves
- 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
- A teaspoon of black peppercorns
- 1 inch of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 yellow onion sliced
- 20 curry leaves
- A generous pinch of salt
Instructions
- First up is making the dry roasted curry mix
- Place a small solid pan (I use a small frying pan) on a low heat
- Add in the whole dry spices and wait for the fragrance to fill the room
- Take the spices off the heat and pour into a pestle and mortar
- Crush the spices into a fine(ish) powder, discarding the husks of the cardamom pods
- Pour the spices into a large bowl
- Add the finely chopped ginger and garlic
- Followed by the coconut milk and the tamarind water
- Now add the meat, and with a wooden spoon, mix the meat thoroughly in the marinade
- Cover the bowl with clingfilm, and place the bowl in the fridge to marinate for at least an hour
- Just before you are ready to take the marinaded meat out of the fridge you can make a start on frying the onions and curry leaves
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large casserole dish
- Add the sliced onions and curry leaves
- On a low heat, cook the onions till they are soft and melting, with a wooden spoon stir occasionally so the onions don’t stick to the bottom of the pan
- Once the onions are almost transparent, add the marinaded meat
- Mix the meat thoroughly into the onions and curry leaves, add a generous pinch of salt then cover with the lid, leaving to cook on a low heat
- Every now and then, give the meat a stir
- After about 30 minutes, just ease the lid of the casserole pot, allow a little space to let the water to evaporate and allow the sauce to thicken
- After around 15 minutes, the sauce should thicken coating each morsel of meat with a delicious spicy coconut sauce
- Serve with boiled rice, perhaps and dhal and aubergine curry and enjoy!
Notes
- For this recipe, I use my deep-sides Le Creuset casserole dish with lid
- To make the tamarind water, take a chunk of dried tamarind, about an inch. Place into a small bowl, add 100ml of boiling water. Let the pulp soak for a few minutes, give a stir with a spoon, then strain into a small bowl.