This is the ultimate Indian comfort food…Okay, fine. I guess I should really finish that sentence with “…if you’re not lactose-intolerant,” because butter chicken will always win. But butter is a cheap way to make flavour. So, reasons that this is better than butter chicken:
1. There’s actual texture – the tender meat that’s somewhere between melt-in-your-mouth and subtly chewy and the slipperiness of the spinach.
2. The fresh spices make the dish complex. It’s savoury and rich in an umami way, not a swimming-in-butter way, which is like comparing Clive Owen with Kianu Reeves. The English Patient with Fifty Shades of Grey. The Wall Street Journal with the Montreal Gazette.
3. To make it you probably only need to buy lamb cubes and spinach, since there’s a good chance you have the rest of the ingredients on hand if you do any Indian cooking already.
4. It’s not cloyingly sweet or oily (though it is very rich) and you don’t feel like you’re in a food coma when you’re done. When was the last time you ate a pound of butter and could say that?
If you’re still not sold, make this dish once and get back to me. Make it for a special occasion. Make it with someone who can de-bone a lamb shoulder (or have a good butcher do for you, but an investment in a significant or insignificant other with a good de-boning knife and willingness to help is an investment in life…)
Make it for someone who hates spinach. That way when they try to pick the lamb from the spinach there will be more for you. Win-win.
Lamb with Spinach (Lamb Saag)
2 1/2 tsp whole cumin (or 2 tsp pre-ground if you’re desperate or really lazy or don’t have a coffee or spice grinder or a mortar and pestle)
1 1/2 tsp whole coriander (or 1 tsp pre-ground)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
5 whole black peppercorns
7 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
6 whole cardamom pods
2 onions, finely chopped
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-inch piece of ginger, peeled with a spoon and finely chopped
2 lbs (or a little more if you can afford it) boned lamb from the shoulder in 1-inch cubes. Or whatever lamb cubes you can find. No bones. See advice for boning advice…)
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tsp + 1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp almond milk (or plain, unsweetened yogurt if you’re not lactose intolerant)
2-4 lbs fresh spinach, rinsed well and finely chopped, or 2-4 lbs frozen and thawed spinach (or a mix of the two). The original recipe said to add 2 lbs of either and call it quits, but 4 lbs is much, much better. It all cooks down anyway.
1/4 tsp garam masala (recipe below. Make it fresh while the lamb is cooking, or use pre-ground, store-bought, but then you might prefer the butter chicken so it’s not really fair)
Chop and measure all ingredients in advance. This recipe goes fast. Toast cumin seeds and coriander seeds in a small skillet until aromatic and brown. Grind in a coffee or spice grinder or crush with a mortar and pestle. It’s a good idea to intentionally grind more than you need because you can use the extra to season the green beans that can accompany this meal (or the cauliflower, or whatever other vegetable you want to make).
Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. Add the black peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves and cardamom pods. Stir to coat in oil then add the onions, garlic and ginger. Stir until onions brown (about 6 or 7 minutes). Add the lamb, 2 tsp of the ground cumin and coriander (or 1 tsp of each store-bought ground spice), cayenne and 1 tsp salt. Stir and cook 1 minute. Add 1 tbsp almond milk. Cook 1 minute. Add another tbsp almond milk. Cook one minute. Repeat, repeat, repeat until you’ve used the 5 table spoons of milk and let it cook for the last minute. Add the spinach and remaining 1/2 tsp salt. Stir until the spinach wilts. Cover and reduce heat to low to simmer for 1 hour. Make sure the liquid stays at a simmer and nothing burns by checking every now and then. Add a little water if necessary but you don’t want to dilute the flavours. The lamb should be juicy enough on its own.
While the lamb is cooking make the garam masala, below.
Check the meat after an hour. It should be tender. It may need up to another ten more minutes depending on the size of the lamb chunks but remember that it will get up to another 5 once you take the cover off and add the garam masala, so don’t overcook it now. But, if the cubes were cut unevenly the larger ones may need more time. Invest in a better boning companion for future lamb saag dinners.
Add 1/4 tsp garam masala (not the whole batch you just made!). Increase heat to medium and evaporate excess water (or not if you want it soupier). Serve with Basmati rice and cumin-coriander green beans.
Garam Masala
1 two-inch stick of cinnamon (or 2 one-inch pieces for easier grinding)
1 tsp black cumin seeds (or regular if you don’t have black)
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp cardamom seeds (crush the pods or pull them open and take out the seeds)
1/2 tsp nutmeg (or 1/4 of an average-sized nutmeg sphere)
Place cinnamon stick, cumin seeds, cloves and peppercorns in a small skillet and toast over medium heat until aromatic (about 5 minutes). Pour into clean bowl and let cool at least 5 minutes before grinding, or your grinder will be hard to clean because of the humidity. Transfer to grinder with cardamom and nutmeg. Grind to a powder. Store in a sealed container, preferably for less than a month, but who dates their spices?
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