Rogan Josh

I must confess that not only have I not written anything interesting lately, I haven't cooked much interesting lately either, except for several pretty good batches of lentil soup.  Until last weekend when I made a fantastic pot of Rogan Josh.  I've made more Indian food than usual this winter, but all of it out of a jar of curry sauce from the grocery store.  Miles Farmers Market has amazing curry sauces at reasonable prices and all you have to do is add the meat.  However, this weekend I was out of jarred sauce and had some lamb in the freezer so I set out to make my own.  I read a few recipes and then used my own cooking technique.  Child number 2 had soccer and a play so I would be out of the house all day, so followed most of the instructions and then just tossed it all in a copper pot in the over at 225 for 6 hours.   I sauteed onions, garlic, 2 tbsp of fresh ginger in a pan.  Then I browned 1.25 pounds of lamb and added a tbsp of curry, 1/4 tsp of cayenne and 1 tsp of turmeric, a small can of tomatoes and 1 cup of yogurt.  I added a cubed eggplant (which I had salted) which was absolutely not in any of the recipes for Rogan Josh, but I think eggplant only adds to any lamb dish and I had less lamb than I needed for the number of people I planned to serve.  I tossed it all in the oven and went to the soccer game.   When I returned I made some basmanti rice and I chopped some cucumber and garlic and mixed it in plain yogurt to make a raita.  The lamb was tender and the sauce was flavorful but didn't have a harsh curry edge like the jarred sauce.  It also wasn't really much more difficult than opening a jar.  This is going into the regular family rotation, for sure.

peas, peas, peas

There were three kinds of peas in this weeks bag.  Shelling peas, snap peas and snow peas.  I had time to prep all of them on Saturday, so they are going quickly.  The shelling peas went into a paella and into chicken salad, the snap peas we grilled with a bit of olive oil & kosher salt & served with roasted potatoes (from the bag!) and yogurt marinated lamb.  The snap peas hopefully will go into Michael Ruhlman's braised peas and radish dish that he had on his blog last week.  It looked amazing.

The Great American Lamb Company

Last night we grilled lamb that we bought at the market.   We bought the lamb for stew, because it is less expensive than most of the other cuts of lamb (on sale for $7.99/lb.) We marinated the lamb in yogurt and garlic and skewered and grilled it. In the past, we have put lemon juice in the marinade, but somehow the lemon juice was forgotten.  The lamb was still great, but some pieces were slightly tough.  Next time, I'll remember the lemon juice.  


We tossed potatoes, onions, red peppers and yellow squash (from the bag!) in olive oil with some salt.  I put the potatoes in the grill basket first, then add the other veggies after the potatoes had softened.  The veggies were as good as the lamb!