Lamb Rogan Josh

I’d been wanting to cook lamb Rogan Josh, one of my very favourite Indian dishes, for absolutely ages: and had been gathering recipes to do so for just as long. Many that I had sourced were very authentic but authenticity, as often happens, takes time and so I decided one evening to opt for a quicker, if perhaps not as “real” version. As such I’m not sure that this is particularly authentic at all and on top of that the yoghurt lightened it much more than I would have liked. It certainly tasted great though.

Apparently (so says Camellia Panjabi) “rogan” is Hindi for “red”, referring to the deep red colour using Kashmiri chillies (although see my comment regarding adding yoghurt as above) and “josh” means “fat”, referring to the fat which should melt out of the meat during braising. As well as the use of Kashmiri chillies this recipe also uses traditional rogan josh spices cardamom and fennel. If you can’t find Kashmiri chilli powder or the dried chillies themselves, you can use a standard chilli powder and add paprika to boost the red colour instead.


Lamb Rogan Josh
serves 2 generously

550g lamb leg (or shoulder), diced
1½ tbsp clarified butter (or ghee)
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled & roughly chopped
25g root ginger, peeled & roughly chopped
400g canned tomatoes
250ml water
100ml yoghurt, whisked
½ tsp sea salt
1 tbsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
½ tbsp ground coriander
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp fennel seeds, ground
3 green cardamoms, lightly crushed
1 black cardamom, lightly crushed
½ tsp black peppercorns
3 cloves
1 bay leaf
½ blade of mace (optional)
¼ tsp turmeric

Fry the onions in the clarified butter in a large saute pan for about 20 minutes until lightly browned. Add the cloves, bay leaf, cardamom, peppercorns & mace & fry for 1 minute.

Then add the coriander, fennel, turmeric, chilli powder, paprika and coriander, frying for a minute or so more.

Throw in the meat and brown for about 5 minutes.

Blitz the tomatoes, garlic and ginger in a blender with a little water and add to the pan, cooking for a minute or so more.

Lower the heat to low and stir through the yoghurt.

Cook for a minute or two before pouring in the water and adding the salt.

Cook for about 2 hours until the meat is very tender removing any whole spices and the bay leaf and mace before serving with basmati rice.