Pigeon Cottage Kitchen

This is a really comforting curry dish that can be made with lamb or beef; just bear in mind that beef can take slightly longer to cook than lamb. It’s a medium heat sauce but you can add more chilli flakes if you want to make it hotter. I make two variations of this. One, where the spinach goes in right at the beginning and breaks down completely into the sauce and secondly, where it goes in at the end of the cooking time to make a fresher flavour. Both are lovely, I just like to change it up from time to time.

• 8 tbsps rapeseed oil
• 1/4 tsp black peppercorns
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 fresh bay leaves
• 6 cardamom pods
• 1 large white onion, chopped
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 1 fresh green chilli, de-seeded and chopped
• 4 cm piece of fresh ginger
• 1kg cubed lamb shoulder or chuck steak
• 2 tsps ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder (add chilli flakes if you want more heat)
• 2 tsps salt
• 5 tbsps plain Greek yoghurt
• 1 large bag of fresh spinach (500g)
• 1/4 tsp garam masala
• 1 large tbsp fresh coriander

To make…

• Heat the oven to 160C.
• Make a paste by combining the garlic, ginger, green chilli, a quarter of the onion and a splash of water in a mini blender or blitz it in a bowl with a hand blender.
• Rinse the spinach in a couple of changes of cold water. Drain in a colander or metal sieve. Wilt it in a hot pan or by pouring a couple of kettles of boiling water over it. Cool and then squeeze out any excess water. You should have a big ball of dark green wilted spinach now. Chop it roughly with a large knife.
• Heat the oil in a pan (I use a lidded casserole as this is going in the oven) over medium heat. Drop in the peppercorns, cloves, cardamom pods and bay leaves and cook for a couple of minutes.
• Add the cubes of meat in batches and brown. Set aside each batch as it browns on a clean plate. Once all of it is browned, add it back to the pan and then add the paste. Stir and cook through for 5 minutes. Add the dry spices, salt and stir in 1 tablespoon of the yoghurt at a time. Add 200ml to water, stir, cover and braise in the oven for an hour or just until the meat is flaky and tender. You can add the spinach now so it cooks down into a thick green sauce or just before the end of the cooking time if you want a fresher flavour.
• Remove the lamb from the oven. It should have a nice thick sauce and the meat should be tender. Stir in the spinach if you haven’t already with the garam masala and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and garnish with fresh coriander.
• Serve with a warm flatbread or plain basmati rice.

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