Malaysian Lamb Korma Curry is based on a recipe from Rick Stein’s “Far Eastern Odyssey”. Its a book filled with flavour and adventure.
This recipe is a beauty but be warned you will need some time. There is nothing at all like a curry made from your own paste, and this paste is a miracle of flavour, texture and liveliness. Malaysia is a melting pot of cuisines and this curry is inspired by India, with cumin, cinnamon and cloves and finished in with coconut milk and palm sugar.
There is not always time to make a curry from scratch so make it on a Saturday night when you have a little time to cut, simmer and sit around patting your satisfied stomach afterwards.
I used diced relatively fat free diced lamb. The lamb fell apart at the touch of a fork and the depth and diversity of the ( multitude) of ingredients results in a multilayered taste experience. If you cant find all the ingredients improvise a bit, it will still be spectacular.
Ingredients
Method
- Heat a dry frypan and toast the coconut until lightly brown and tip onto a plate to cool.
- Using the same frypan toss the whole spices ( except the lemongrass) over heat until aromatic and toasted.
- Pour them into a spice grinder. Grind until fine. Put these spices with the powdered spices and the onion, ginger, garlic, coconut, lemongrass and oil and blend to a smooth paste.
- Trim the Lamb and cut into 3- 4 cm dice set aside.
- Heat the oil in a large pot and fry off the spice paste until fragrant. Add the lamb and continue to saute stirring constantly.
- Add 500 ml water and 1 tsp salt or fish sauce for a bigger flavour. Simmer on low for approximately 1 hour or until the meat is tender.
- Add the coconut milk, tomato and sugar and simmer 15 minutes longer. Taste and add more sugar and salt or even fish sauce if desired . Finish with crispy shallots , extra coconut cream and coriander
Mashing the lemon grass creates lots of fibres in the sauce. And you don’t say what the fried coconut is for. I put it in the sauce, and again it makes the result gritty / fibrous.
Hi Alex
Sorry to hear the recipe was not suitable for you.
When I use a nice fresh lemongrass and put it into the spice grinder it has never been fibrous. Perhaps leave lemongrass out if you cant get a really fresh stalk. You can also grind it separately and remove any really fibrous bits before adding it
The coconut goes into the grinder with the spices.
“Pour them into a spice grinder. Grind until fine. Put these spices with the powdered spices and the onion, ginger, garlic, coconut, lemongrass and oil and blend to a smooth paste”
Thanks for letting me know you found it confusing.
Tania
I just realised she was chilling with the puppy and her little suitcase in the background……..great photo. x
O thank you She did enjoy herself