Okra and Lamb Curry in English.When I think of Pakistani cuisine, I think of Bhindi first, it is easily one of my favourite flavours. Here I am going to cook it with lamb.There are a couple of slight variations on this where some people use tomato, I personally don't ( unless I am cooking with beef ) because I want to maximise the okra flavour. I do add a lot of onions though as I think they compliment the okra nicely.Depending on how much lamb you put in the flavours do complete so I personally would put in less meat. I was cooking for my son so I doubled up on the meat with this one. I also managed to overcook the lamb as you will see in the pictures. I will add a note in that section so you can avoid doing the same.
Cook time : 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 800 grams Bhindi ( Okra )
- 2 large brown onions, sliced
- 3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 thumb ginger, finely chopped
- 600 grams lamb, diced
- 1 tsp paprika powder
- ½ tsp chilli powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 handful fresh coriander
- 1 tsp garam masala
Instructions
- The first step is to fry the okra, unfortunately you can't get away from this step as otherwise the okra will be slimy.( I wonder if you can grill them instead, might try that next time )Anyway, wash, dry, top and tail and chop up your okra into whatever size pieces you fancy. Just not to small – at least 1 centimetre wide and up to 3 is fine.
- Fry in oil on high in batches and put aside
- Roughly chop 1 of the onions. Sautee until translucent and then add the ginger and garlic. Fry for another 2-3 minutes.
- Next add the meat if you are using. I added around 650g of meat but that's because I was cooking for my carnivorous son. I would recommend using half the weight in meat in relation to the okra – so around 250g-300g if you're using 700-800g of okra.
- Throw in the paprika, chilli, salt, turmeric, coriander, cumin and cook the meat until its brown. I wouldn't get too hung up on all the spices, just use what you have, this tastes just perfect with only the salt.At this point some people add a few chopped tomatoes, say 3-4 or half a can. I don't but that's personal preference. I probably would add tomatoes if I was using beef.
- Add water, around a small cup for every 300g of meat and bring to the boil.Now, this is where I went wrong, I pressure cooked the lamb for 30 minutes, overcooking it. That would have been fine if it was beef but lamb only needs around 10-15 minutes if using the pressure cooker. If you're using a pressure cooker, lid once boiling and then turn down the heat once you hear the whistle. Wait 15 minutes for lamb and 30 minutes for beef.If not using a pressure cooker, just lid and simmer on low for double the amount of time.
- Once you carefully remove the lid you need to dry it out a little. As you can see in the picture, I have too much water left so I had to boil for another 15 minutes on high.
- Once you meat looks like this you can move to the next step. So not totally dry but it has a thicker sauce.
- Now throw in the pre-fried okra, another sliced onion and the chopped coriander.You can 1 tsp of garam masala at this stage even though I forgot to 🙂
- Lid and cook on low for another 15 minutes and you're done. You can see, even if your meat isn't completely tender in the earlier stage you are still cooking for another 30 minutes so it has plenty of time to tenderise.
- Enjoy with naan.
