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By Vivienne
These two Indian style dishes will blow your socks off ! Not with their heat but by their luxurious taste and appearance.
Ideal for dinner party for six when you want to do something different and can plan ahead.
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RAAN (leg of lamb dish)
...... not actual size 🙂
Remember if you want to have this for dinner on Saturday night you need to do all this preparation on the Thursday.
Take one good size leg of lamb and trim off all excess fat.
Prick the leg of lamb all over with a skewer. With a sharp knife make several deep gashes in the flesh. Put leg into the pan in which you will be roasting it.
Next:
- finely chop about 4 oz of fresh root ginger
- peel 12 cloves of garlic
- all the yellow rind of one lemon (just in strips)
- juice the lemon
- 2 teaspoon of ground cummin
- 2 teaspoons of ground cardamom
- 6 whole cloves
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1 teaspoon of ground chilli (more if you like)
- 3 teaspoon of salt
Blend all of the above and then spread it over the lamb.
Leave aside while you….
Mix a cup of ground almonds, two tablespoons of soft brown sugar and a cup and a quarter of plain greek style yoghurt. This should be enough to cover the leg of lamb. Don’t worry about the bit at the bottom – you can’t turn it over at this stage. If this mixture doesn’t look enough to coat the lamb just add some more ground almond and yoghurt.
Next:
Cover the lamb and put in fridge for two days.
On the day you want to eat this dish, take out of fridge one hour before starting to cook (bring to room temperature). Sprinkle two more teaspoons of brown sugar over the lamb.
Preheat oven to 220c or 425F. Place uncovered dish in oven and roast for 20 minutes then reduce temperature to 180 or 350 and roast one more hour. Then reduce temperature to about 150, and COVER the pan (with foil) and leave slowly roasting for another 4 hours.
Then….
Transfer lamb to serving plate, cover and leave in oven while you….
Spoon off any visible fat from roasting pan juices and then add saffron powder – half a teaspoon. Stir all up on top of stove and let it boil to reduce a little. You should be able to figure out the consistency.
My recipe says to spoon sauce over the dish but I think it is better to pass around the jug.
You really can’t do a regular carving job, just get stuck into it as it falls apart easily.
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DHANSAK
Dhansak Lentils
A Parsee chicken with lentils and vegetables dish (my version)
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of lentils (made up of one or four different lentils, whatever you like)
- 2-3 cups water
- Salt – 2 tsp
- Ghee – about 2 tbs
- Fresh root ginger – 1 inch piece finely chopped
- Garlic – 1 finely chopped
- One good size chook, cut up into 8 pieces
- Fresh mint – 1 tablespoon, finely chopped
- 1 eggplant – cubed
- Pumpkin – a cup and a bit peeled and cubed
- Silverbeet – a cup, chopped up (no stalk bits though)
- Onion – 1 large, sliced
- Tomatoes – one can of chopped
For the masala:
- Ghee – 1 or 2 tablespoons
- Onion – 1 medium, sliced
- Fresh root ginger – 1 inch piece finely chopped
- Chilli powder – 1 teaspoon
- Garlic – 3 cloves finely chopped
- Cinnamon – ground, half teaspoon
- Cardamom – ground, half teaspoon
- Cloves – 3 ground up (optional as far as I am concerned)
- Turmeric – 2 teaspoons
- Coriander – ground – 3 teaspoons
Cooking:
Soak lentils for 30 minutes, drain and then into large saucepan (preferably cast iron), add water and salt, bring to boil and then simmer for 30 – 40 minutes (until soft obviously). In another large pot melt ghee and first lot of ginger and garlic and the chicken pieces and lightly brown and then add to lentils. In same pan as used for chicken pieces, add more ghee, second lot of garlic, ginger, onion and spices and sauté until onion clear but not brown. Put all this and the other vegetables (pumpkin, eggplant, toms etc) into pan with the chicken. Simmer away until chicken all cooked and everything smells great and vegetables sort of disintegrated. Check taste for salt etc.
Note: When preparing garlic, ginger and onion just do twice the amount first mentioned and halve it for the process. If you have a good size pot and want to do two chickens you will not need to double all the other ingredients. 2 teaspoons of salt will be about right for 1 or two chooks, ghee will be plenty, I’d increase vegetables and lentils by 50%, one can of tomatoes should do, but increase spices by 100% (though the chilli, I leave up to your discretion).
Accompany this dish with Naan bread. If you can’t make it yourself the brands in the supermarket are passable (just warm up in the micro-wave).
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POTATO SAMBAL
This goes well with any curry, eat it warm or at room temperature. Taste testers beware – this sambal is deceptively delicious and addictive.
In a tablespoon of ghee (you must use ghee, never oil) lightly cook the following:
- 1 finely minced onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 non hot green chilli or pepper
- half teaspoon of ground ginger
- “ “ cummin
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- quarter tsp hot chilli
Having already cooked 5 potatoes and roughly mashed, add the above mixture plus salt to taste. Then stir in some thick coconut milk, a little bit at a time. Consistency should still be firm.
Other usual side dishes recommended (apart from your favourite chutney or pickle):
- Cucumber/yogurt
- Sliced tomato and onions dressed in lemon juice, salt/pepper
- Naan and or pappadums
- If Naan not possible, a basmati rice dish of course
A note from Vivienne
This is the third and last instalment of recipes from me for the time being. I don’t want to wear out my welcome. Some of the other ideas I have are more suited to the winter months so I do intend to do another series. In the meantime if any of you lovely people have a foodie question please feel free to ask and I’ll endeavour to assist in whatever way I can.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Reblogged this on Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle and commented:
I did this exactly as Viv said, the problem was I never got a spanking… 🙂
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Just thought I’d drop a line to let you know that, thanks to the wonderful cooking of Hung One On, I was able to sample your recipe for Raan as given above and may I just say how delicious I thought it was!
Nice one Viv!
🙂
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I am really really glad you were able to eat this dish. By the way, it might look like a lot of work but it isn’t. Plan ahead, prepare the raw leg of lamb, bung in fridge and much later into the oven.
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Vivienne, I hope you’ll excuse me if I refrain from torturing myself by reading your recipes; you see, as there’s less than a snowflakes’ chance in Hell of me standing at a cooker long enough to prepare and cook such tantalizing morsels as those pictured above, it would cause me too much distress…
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Thankful for mild spring weather, allowing me to successfully, so far, spread preparing the garden for summer across a few weekends. The filler plants I got in last week look as good as when they arrived home in their pots.
That tantalising aroma, BTW Wivienne, is a large batch of Chicken Parsee á la Vivienne simmering away in my modern cast iron pot with the handy glass lid.
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Yummm. The Voice family thanks you for that. Too tasty for a supermarket naan though; had never tried one before and don’t think I will again.
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Very good to hear that it was Yummm.
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A bit of Ajam Goreng tonight with peanut sauce (Katjang saus) and gado gado salad.
Years ago there used to be an Indonesian Restaurant somewhere near Gosford. I had Gado gado at Woy woy just after the Willy willy with a girl from Wagga Wagga…
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Was that near a hah-ha ? 9 Across a small fence.
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Hi Emm,
Nice to see you.
I think that period of the Gado gado coincided with so many coming to grief falling down ha ha’s, especially in the evenings with a couple under the belt, that they stopped gardens having ha ha’s.
Johny Felt near Brayton has one of the best examples of existing ha ha.
I remember a few years back, when the 100 acre garden had an ‘open week-end’, carloads of tourists from Sydney were unpacking, including a nervous lady with an even more nervous small fluffy dog. The sign on the gate clearly stated, ‘ no dogs’. In less than a minute this little dog gave out an almighty howl. It turns out it had got its front leg caught in a fox trap.
The owner of the garden had a problem with foxes so had set the trap.
Anyway, as usual a number of the visitors were unaware of the ha ha, and a couple fell down it. I suppose it is not called a ha ha for nothing.
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Gado Gado is one of my favourites, especially in the summer. I am very fond of the sauce with boiled eggs and cucumber.
I am not far from Walla Walla and another place some people chuckle about – Burrumbuttock.
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These look so good Vivienne. I’ve had lentils at the back of my mind for a while, and it seems like ages since I’ve cooked any Indian food apart from with those prepared pastes (Which are good these days. Also, I really like Patak’s eggplant pickle.) So I’m going to pay you the sincerest form of compliment; actually cooking the chicken dish. Unfortunately it’s going to be delayed, as the garden has thanked me for my efforts to prepare it for summer by giving me the worst case of hay fever I’ve ever had. Must be the sugar cane mulch. Will wear a dust mask for the rest that I have to lay now.
I must say the potato dish looks as if it would go well with salmon too.
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With Helvi confirming how good the raan is, I am totally confident is saying you will not regret preparing and cooking the chicken dish. I usually just use the brown lentils so you don’t really need to hunt out the varieties. The potato can be used
as a ‘salad’ with any cold meats you desire. Patak’s lime pickle and Sharwood’s mango chutney are our favourites. Hope the hay fever doesn’t hang around too long.
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Just got back from finishing off the sugar cane mulch. Hoping it will rain enough so I don’t need to to water it in. The dust mask makes a real difference. I think they say to wear one, but like most other people, of course I never follow those precautions until AFTER the horse has bolted.
Yes, I still have the Sharwood’s mango chutney after discovering it ages ago. Not the same jar of course. And the lime pickle is another favourite. If you try out the eggplant pickle I guarantee you’ll like it; it has a kind of sweet, smoky flavour rather than hot.
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I will put it on my list. I tend to get a bit stuck on my favourites. I have a husband who can’t/won’t read the
instructions because he has a very handywoman in the house.
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I give up Vivienne. How did we get from Indian pickles to “I have a husband who can’t/won’t read the
instructions”? Not that I’m suggesting there’s any need to restrain one’s remarks about one’s husband to any particular time or place. Just curious.
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You wrote about not following the precautions until after the horse has bolted. I live with a similar person.
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Oh no, I read the instructions. I don’t always pay attention to the protective gear though because there are so many over the top warnings. In fact, I think MJ once wrote one of his best articles on Unleashed that was vaguely about that. Anyway, now I’ve not only got a stack of those disposable dust masks, I’ve also got a few of the fancier ones that protect against sprays as well.
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Mulches are full of various bacteria and fungi. I remember, as a callow youth, a married couple were admitted to hospital with quite severe respiratory symptoms. After testing for various horrible things, like TB, the physician realised that they both had been spreading mulch without masks.
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You nurses see bacteria and fungus everywhere! But yes, these days mulch comes with a legionella warning. I now have to be more understanding of my children’s need to make their own mistakes rather than learning from mine, as I failed miserably in this case to learn from other people’s. Feeling 90% today.
On a related note I only just learnt how to wash my hands the other day from a nurse. I’d never done the inter-digital spaces before. Oh well, it’s probably built up my immune system.
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MMmmmm. we nurses love washing our hands, don’t we, Hung?
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Voice, please wear one only at a time of all of those masks you have bought. I think I know the ones you speak of. They look so clean-meaningful-all piled up with the tiny straps that hold them onto your head delicate traces on the face cups. I took mine out of their box and balanced them on a shelf to look at them whenever I open that stores’ cupboard. They do make a stack. Sounds like you like glancing at yours too. 🙂
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Viv, Raan is one of my favorite dishes, never any leftovers when it is on offer…
I had it for the first time at a dinner party at my Canadian girlfriend’s place, love at the first forkful. When at Rozelle markets we also always have a very tasty Tibetan curry, which includes heaps of vegies, potatoes as well. Could have one right now !
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It is delicious and I think the more so as it is not something we have everyweek – just a few times each year. Have you ever cooked it Helvi?
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Yes Viv, I cooked it soon after that dinner party, it was just me and the kids, and it was for a Mother’s day dinner , it was slow-cooking in the oven whilst the kids took me out to lunch.
As it happened, Gerard was overseas, and did not taste this delicacy…later on as our Indian chef, he took over, and sadly his Raans are so much better.
My forte is Italian cooking, lasganas and all that kind of stuff…
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What H, no cabbage rolls?
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Funny you should mention the gabbage rolls, Hung, as I’m pretty good at making them, but then of course I love all that Polish, Russian stuff like Borscht, Beef Stroganoff, piroshkies and like…not to forget the Estonian or Finnish rye breads.
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Ah, bread, what beautiful stuff. At the markets yesterday I was in agony walking past all the lovely fresh bread shops, unable to touch, taste or feel.
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Hung – I’ve just baked a gluten free loaf of bread. Can you smell it – still warm. Our next mission is to find a successful mixture to make wonton wrappers gluten free. First three experiments resulted in something like playdough (ugh).
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Smells wonderful, enjoy 🙂
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I was at a Disabilities event with a friend in about 1998 when we were surprised by seeing a hotplate (intended for cooking lamb chops) being brushed with branches of the delicious-smelling herb, rosemary.
Even now so many years later it makes me wish I eat meat just to replicate in my mind entirely the occasion. Bring it back as it were.
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Vivienne, just gave the Burmese Curried Prawns a run with all three sons, and Mrs M. All, including apprentice chef, middle son, declared it a great success!
Probably should have had it with a Pilsener or IPA, rather than a Pale Ale (sorry Ato, no Ouzo, can’t drink it since getting intoxicated on it when I was 16!), but, a success by all accounts.
Thanks again for the recipe.
Mark
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Glad to hear that (and a relief too!).
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Pilsner would help you when the regurgitation occurs
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That’s how I maintain my figure!
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yo
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The best food has often been born out of grinding poverty. One had to make do with what was available and herbs and spices were the ingredients to make even the basics of staples taste nice.
In hunger even raw beans taste delicious. A fresh pasta with some garlic and olive oil kept millions alive in poverty stricken Calabria or Sicily. Rich people now queue up at Trattoria gionni franzio and pay eagerly for food that originated from the poor.
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Yes, the Raan. It is actually the Royal Raan Roast and was traditionally reserved for the highest echelons of Indian Society.
This is the dish that one cooks around Christmas time or if one wants to get married. I used to add tumeric and lots of raisins and far more lemon juice.
It is known fact that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and the Raan surely proves it. Many, many proposed afterwards, both men and women. Actually, hogget is what they use in India and this might be even better than lamb. The beauty of this recipe is that the acidity of the yogurt and lemon juice cooks the meat or at least tenderises it. It falls off the bone. It surely is one of the best dishes ever to appear on any plate.
Folklore has it that after consuming Raan it results in many babies being born and this is often blamed for the huge population in India..
Thanks Vivienne.
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Thank you Gerard for the history notes on Raan. I think you are right in suggesting hogget. When we used to grow and eat
our own sheep my curries were always great and of course the joints were much larger (loin chops were more like beef T-bones).
My current butcher is a wonder – he hangs everything properly so that all his beef and lamb joints are so, so much tastier.
When I wrote ‘special occasions’ I didn’t realise just how special!
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PS: the pic of the lamb raan put up by our fabulous editor is in fact a shoulder (if anyone was wondering why it looked a bit small).
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My foodie question, Vivienne is, “when can we come for dinner?”
The Indian cousine can be quite engrossing and demanding for the cook, though, I suppose, this is the case with pretty much all middle-to-haute cousine around the world, with the ingredients and methods being the only difference.
I’ll ramble slightly.
When I’m translating from ancient Greek into English, it often feels as if I’m trying to cook one dish with a whole lot of different ingredients: like being asked, say, to cook an old recipe of fowl stew with no fowl but only fish around and none of the ingredients mentioned in the original dish. Yet, the result, if I am extremely careful and diligent, will solicit the same emotions from the modern “eater” (reader, audience) as the original recipe did from its “eater.”
And culinary recipes, to my mind, are as much a reflection of the culture and way of life of the people who conjure them up as are their literary works. After all, they both require invention and a need not only to feed the stomach but also to engage every other part of our being: from the five (physical) senses to the boundless variety of (metaphysical) emotions.
In their essence, a dish, presented on a platter or a bowl and a picture, presented on a canvas, a garden, presented on a front yard are all works of art, all works of the creative part of our beings.
Your Raan, Dhansak and potato sambal recipes, Vivienne are all works of art, conjured up by you, over the cultural patinae placed by many others before you, with the purpose of not only feeding the bowel but also every other part of our being.
There is only one simple ingredient missing and about that, I disagree with the religious hierarchs (as I disagree with them about almost everything else) and that is a bottle of ouzo at the table! How could all this delightful effort go bereft of the company of nectar which always accompanies the ambrosia consumed by the race of the divinities on the peaks of Olympus and the Himalayas?
Thanks, Vivienne and sorry for my rambles. What can I say, you’ve inspired me!
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True, ‘ Mou ! But for me the problem is that I’m a rather better reader and writer (I hope) than I am a cook. So whereas the recipe speaks to me beautifully, when confronted by the ingredients, deaf and mute I am 🙂
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Ah, one step at a time, Emmjay!
One step at a time!
I feel exactly the same way when a lump of stone and a few chisels are placed before me; or a canvas with some brushes and paints on the side; or a huge greenery full of eye-gloating plants.
Can’t do anything with any of these lovely tools until I begin.
Pick up the roast, look at it, turn it over, smell it. Switch one of the stove rings on and watch the flame, smell it, watch it as it goes high and then low. Place a little chunk of meat in a pan and then watch it as it changes over the fire. Smell it. Pick up an onion. Look how gorgeous the thing is. Peal it, chop it up up, smell it. Pick up a bulb of garlic. Look how gorgeous it is. Separate it into cloves. Crush it, clean its outer leaves. Pick up some spring onions… Toss a little olive oil -virginal if you so prefer- into the pan and watch it. Look how gorgeous the thing is as it changes its shape, its colour, its aroma. Toss the onion, garlic and spring onion in with the piece of meat. Watch how enchantingly they change before your eyes. Watch the effects of the ehat upon them. Slow heat, fast heat, sweet heat, soft heat. Listen to your nostrils!
Watch your ears?
Taste your eyeballs!
Are you drunk with inspiration yet?
I’m pissed to my fingertips at the moment.
(Chicken chops are sizzling joyfully on the pan)
Bon appe tit!
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ALL the food where I am working just now, ‘Mou, is vegetarian. Right now, at this moment, at this point in time, temporarily, I hate you. In the nicest possible way, of course. 🙂
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Well, there you go, Emmjay!
Cook the same dish with different ingredients! Translate, man, TRANSLATE!
Oz is beaut because of its huge variety of edible things. Not only meats but vegies, roots, spices, condiments and fruit. As well as potables. All corners of the planet can be seen in its market places and on its tables.
And Fire melds them together. Brings out their essence in every respect: fragrance, oils, taste, sound, sight, texture. Let the brain spin out, man, let it spin out!
To ramble once more:
Once the school I was teaching at was short of a Home Eco teacher for a whole term. Who would they give the job to?
Quite right, Me!
But I panicked not. What’s the diff, I asked myself, between cooking a dish and writing an essay, a poem, a short story? Bugger all. It’s all to do with imagination. And getting to know your medium.
Most importantly, I told my students who knew me only as an English and Greek teacher and viewed me with culinary suspicion, “Let your brain spin out, boys and girls, let it spin out!”
You should have seen the class! They were crackling lettuce near their ears, shoving their nostrils into the flour, munching a piece of carrot as loudly as they could, and… spinning! Spinning everything they could on the table, in the pan, over the different types of fire.
“Show me sweet heat!” I’d call out to them and the rings of fire would fall to their lowest point possible. I’d go over the rings and wave my hand over the fire “Now let me see raging nut-cracking heat, guys!” And the fire would fly high.
The teacher’s aid couldn’t wait for the next lesson.
“Shit, George,” she’d say. “They’re actually eating the food they’ve cooked. Never happened before. They’d always throw it in the bin!”
True dinks, ask my daughters who went to that school!
Then the school found a bloody Home Ec teacher and… well, “that was that,” as they say in the classics -of which I partook handsomely.
I love cooking. The workshop can be as huge or as small as you want without any compromise to the immensity and intensity of the experience.
IN FACT!
Here’s a fragment of my daughter’s email which I’ve received only a few minutes ago:
“Yemista is in the oven!!! Everyone was very excited when they saw my basket full of Greek Joy : )”
She had asked me to cook for her seven yemista to take to work for her team mates. I did so, stuffing seven red capsicums and putting them in individual oven-proof, classy white bowls. She took them to work in a basket, took them downstairs to a restaurant that has an oven, who, by now, has reheated them and delivered them back to the office.
Did a delightful job of that, I reckons. And Mrs At was nowhere to be seen!
Better get back to Euripides now, or he’ll start screaming “Neglect, neglect, neglect!”
Bloody Greeks!
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Lovely rambling thoughts indeed. As to the appropriate liquid refreshment, at home I always have what pleases me most.
I can’t quite imagine ouzo going down very well with these dishes but to each his/her own. I consumed considerable quantities of ouzo in Greece, near little food shacks on beaches – it was pure bliss. We can in fact have a virtual dinner any time you like Atomou except Thursdays (fresh fish day here).
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Thanks, Vivienne.
I do very little blog visiting these days and so the chattering rambles build up. I’m afraid, you lot have to cop it!
Ouzo would definitely go with every dish on the planet: from spicy, chilly-hot Mexican to curry-hot Indian, to cold pie-floaters of Yorkshire. Take a sip of it first, as an aperitif and then begin guzzling whatever you fancy. I found ouzo to be a real appetite opener. The Greeks like to say that you can eat until you bloat but then, all it takes is a sip of ouzo and you’re hungry again.
They say the same thing about the Turkish Pastourma (aka Pastirma). Have you heard of that item? It’s beaf, dried and “cooked” in herbs and spices. Raw, really. Salty but very spicy. It has the same appetiser capacity. Usually served before a meal, say, on garlic pita bread.
Love fish! I don’t thing there’s a species I won’t eat. As for octopus and calamari! Yummmmmmmy!
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“Think” that is, not “thing!”
I told you my fingers are pissed!
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Sounds a bit like a beef jerky and I am sure I would love it too. Back from the fish shop and have just cooked blue
swimmer crabs, soused some mussels (to eat like pastourma actually) and have mirror dory fillets for mains.
Think I will get some ouzo next week – do you prefer it straight, on ice or with water?
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Ouzo is only drunk polluted by non Greeks!
Neat, please. Room temp though if one like the pretty, cloudy look, one may place it in the fridge for a wee while, or serve it in a chilled glass -but totally pure, please!
Don’t know what beef jerky is. I keep hearing about it but the name (oddly enough) lifts my nose sky high. Odd because I don’t mind the name pastourma. Go figure, as the yanks, oft utter!
But all that lovely fish!
Hold everything! We’re coming over!
Bon appetit, Vivienne!
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Vivienne, I will make the Dhansak…regardless without the chicken it looks so delicious in my imagination. I love new lentil recipes and I invite friends to share. They pop in anyway when they get wind of something new.
I love pumpkin. Do you perhaps have pumpkin recipes you really love, V and might share when you come back (soon)? Maybe an article about cookbooks?
I love your writing about food. Thank you.
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Without the chicken you will still have a great vegie and lentil dish. I would add some Massel vegetarian chicken
stock powder for a bit of oomph to replace the actual chook juices. Regarding pumpkin, I have just the usual soup
recipe and love roast pumpkin. I will keep in mind your request regarding cookbooks.
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AAAAaaahhhhhh!!!!!!
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Big one, you’re drooling!
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That was an orgasm of the palate!
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I tell you, Big one, there’s one hell of a lot of orgasms going on in that palace!
Oh, the palate! Oh, I get it!
Fruit loops romancing on your tongue, ey?
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I staggered home from night shift, and was greeted by Vivienne’s lamb. Why wouldn’t have a palatal orgasm?
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