This is arguably the most common curry-house curry in the UK. It comes in a jar in any supermarket these days. Of course, the jar is obscene. For a much-truncated wazwan, we who cook make our own at home.
My rogan josh is lamb in a warmly spiced reduction of yogurt. I have stewed chunks of lamb leg for hours in a fatty, fatty yogurt, with cloves, cinnamon, ginger, fennel, and a not-too-smoky paprika standing-in for Kashmiri chilies. The cardamon, saffron, and coriander leaf have entered only at the very end, because I feel that they are the delicate ones. I use asofoetida in lieu of allium (alliums? allia? alliarum? Sigh. Amo, amas, amat…). I do not believe in tomato in my rogan josh, even though I expect tomatoes grow well enough in Jammu, because I have a perfect notion of a perfectly creamy north (of India? of England? of Birmingham?). My rogan josh is the anti-curry: curry without appreciable heat.
No recipe here. Screw you, scrapers. Anybody who’s curious can ask about for the details in comments. I think that sploggers ignore comments.
What do I serve with my curry? With this curry, I serve churri. What is churri? Well, I shall show you next week, I think.
Hi,
I’d love the recipe!
What did I do last night?…hmmm, something like this:
Make stew-sized chunks of 1kg (2lbs) lamb leg, and dust with 1 Tbsp paprika. Heat 4Tbsp sunflower oil with a pinch asafoetida (no asafoetida? Then saute finely minced onion and a couple of cloves of garlic cloves here instead). Turn up the heat, turn in the meat, and brown it. Add 2 cups of strained yogurt (the 10% milk fat greek stuff) and reduce for ten minutes with stirring. Add 2 tsp fennel seed (preferably crushed) 3cm (1 inch) ginger (grated), 1 tsp ground cinnamon (or a stick), and 1/2 tsp ground cloves (or four cloves). Cover and simmer about an hour, stirring every once and a while and adding water if it starts to stick and burn. This dish needs some babysitting, I’m afraid. When the lamb is tender, add a 1/4cup of milk to the top of the thickened curry, and, before you stir it in, let a pinch of saffron and the seeds from a half-dozen cardamom pods dissolve into it. Stir in some chopped coriander leaf.
Very creamy, and the only heat comes from the paprika and ginger. A good introductory curry for people who think curry’s too hot for them. Rogan josh has a lot of variations especially, since it’s so popular in the West, so canvas opinion on the matter. But there’s my two-cents.
This curry is my fav, looks delicious!