Aachar Gosht (lamb in pickling spices)

Today we all feel like eating mutton but none of us want to eat the curries which I normally make. Vindaloo naaaa, Roce curry naaaaa, Shakuti, Green masala naaaa naaaa naaaaa.

Opened my cupboard to check on a new recipe from my cooking books. I found this book, “50 great curries of India by Camellia Panjabi with some different curries which I never tried. My mind is all set on this recipe “Lamb in pickling spices (Aachar Gosht-Bhopal style). Aaachar is the Indian word for pickles. This green curry is aromatic, little tangy and not too hot. The gravy is thick so you can simply have it with roti/paratha/ or plain boiled rice. Since I was going to serve it with Plain rice I made some tomato Saar & french beans vegetable to go along with the Aachar Gosht. .

Ingredients

1 ½ kg Lamb pieces with bones.
2 cups of full fat yoghurt
1 big bunch of coriander leaves
500 gms of onion chopped
6 flakes of garlic
1 inch ginger chopped
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 ½ tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 ½ tsp nigella seeds (kalonji/onion seeds)
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
50 ml oil
8 green chillies
!/2 tsp turmeric powder
Salt as per taste.

1.Wash the meat, drain and keep it aside.

2.Puree the yoghurt and coriander leaves set aside. Puree the onions garlic and ginger.

3.Lightly pound the fennel, fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds, mustard seeds in a mortar. Slit 4 chilies and stuff the spice mixture and leave the remaining dry spice mixture to be added later.

4.Take a pan, add oil. Once the oil is hot add the remaining 4 chilies until its pale.

5.Add the onion puree and cook for another 10-15 minutes until it gets pink in colour.

6.Add the remaining dry spice mixture, fry for another minute. Add the yoghurt puree season with turmeric and salt as per taste. Add the stuffed chillies.

7.Add the meat, mix well and bring to a boil.

8.Cover the lid and let it simmer on slow fire for another 45 min to 1 hour until the meat has cooked.