Recipe for Lamb and Sweet Potato Curry

According to Wikipedia, curry is a dish of meat and vegetables, cooked in an Indian style spicy sauce and served with rice.  And while not what I think of when I think "curry", other than the rice, this full-of-flavor dish meets the definition.  I adapted this dish from Meena's blog "Hooked on Heat", a great spot for Indian recipes that anyone can tackle.  As you know if you've been reading ELEB for a while, I'm trying to cook more Indian recipes.  This one is a winner!

You have to be somewhat committed to cooking Indian flavored food to tackle this recipe.  It has quite a few spice ingredients.  As it turned out, I had all of them in my cupboard and I would encourage you to suck it up go ahead and stock your spice shelf with these flavorful spices. You'll be all ready to whip together a batch of chai concentrate or another Indian dish.  And trust me, when you taste this one, you'll be glad you did. In addition to a great meal, your kitchen will smell amazing.

Whole spices

Recipe for Lamb and Sweet Potato Curry

Yield: 4 servings

Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients: 

• 2 TBSP canola oil


• 5 whole cloves


• 5 whole cardamom pods


• 1 cinnamon stick


• 1 tsp cumin seeds


• 1 large onion, sliced


• 1/2 tsp chili powder


• 1 TBSP coriander powder


• 1 tsp roasted cumin powder


• 1/2 tsp garam masala powder


• 1 TBSP ginger-garlic sauce


• 2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped, about 2 cups


• 1 lb ground lamb


• 1 large sweet potato, cubed, about 3 cups


• 1 cup water


• 4 cups baby spinach, washed and dried


• salt, to taste

Method:

• Sauté cloves, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, and cumin seeds with onions in hot oil over medium high heat until lightly browned.


• Add in tomatoes, ginger-garlic sauce and remaining spices, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes until tomatoes soften and begin to break down.


• Crumble in lamb and cook until most of pink is gone, about 5 minutes.


• Add in sweet potatoes and cook covered for 20 minutes over medium-low heat until potatoes are cooked through.


• Stir in spinach and cook uncovered until wilted, about 3-4 minutes


• Taste and season with salt as needed.

Ready to add tomatoes

Ready to add potatoes

Ready to add spinach

I wasn't sure whether to leave the cloves and cardamom pods in the finished dish.  I decided to fish them out, not that it would have been bad to eat one but...


So, thanks to Meena for an inspiring recipe.  I hope you'll give it a try.

What ethnic dishes are you cooking these days?


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