Grandmother's Lamb Recipe

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• grandmother's chile paste:
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 6 dried red chile peppers (preferably kashmiri)
• 1/4 cup apple vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped - or more to taste
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste
• 5 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne) or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 pounds lamb shanks, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups water
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

Recipe

Preparation Time: 25 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 50 mins

Ready Time: 3 hrs 15 mins


• place the cumin seeds into a dry skillet over medium heat, and toast them, stirring constantly, until they give off a roasted fragrance and turn a darker brown, about 1 minute. scrape the seeds into a bowl, and allow to cool. when cool, grind them with a mortar and pestle or a clean spice grinder. set the ground seed aside.
• remove stems of chiles if necessary, and soak pods in the apple vinegar in a bowl until soft, at least 1 hour. place the softened chiles with vinegar, cumin, and garlic into a blender or food processor, and pulse until ground into a paste, 30 seconds to 1 minute or as needed.
• heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat, and cook and stir the onions until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. stir in ginger garlic paste and about 1 teaspoon of the grandmother's chile paste mixture or as desired. reduce heat to medium-low, and fry the onions with the spice pastes for 5 minutes to blend flavors. stir in tomato paste, ground red pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, and cloves, and bring to a simmer. cook to blend flavors, about 20 minutes.
• mix in the lamb shank pieces, and stir in salt to taste; simmer for 20 minutes, and stir in the water. bring the lamb and sauce to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and simmer until lamb is very tender and sauce has thickened, 45 more minutes. sprinkle with chopped cilantro to serve.