Day 33: Lamb and sweet potato curry

By chance today, I had heard that they were talking about cooking lamb on the Ray D’Arcy Show on Today FM which is a show I love but only get to listen to during holidays. Anyway, they are running a competition this week for the best lamb burger. I listened to it on playback this evening and I’d highly recommend you listen to it too and stay tuned to the final on Thursday. Today, they had a woman on and she gave the version of her lamb burger called the El Whoppa (not sure of the spelling though!) and, I must say, although I don’t eat lamb, I will surely have to make them at some stage. It sounded so impressive. If she doesn’t win the final, I will be very surprised. Plus, Neven Maguire from McNean House fame was on the radio recently saying that Irish lamb is the best in the world.  

Well, where I’m going with this is that for tonight’s dinner, I made Lamb and sweet potato curry. The photo of it in the cookbook looked really nice. Over the weekend, I actually bought a new large casserole dish in Hegarty’s of Buncrana (no relation!) and as someone who loves a bargain, I got it for €72.50 reduced from €105. So, tonight was its first outing and I know that it’s something which I will have for many years to come, I’m sure which will give it a very low cost-per-use. Cost-per-use and cost-per-wear – those are my two key excuses for buying things that are that wee bit dearer. Oh yes, those two and “Buy cheap, buy twice!” Anyway, back to the recipe…

First of all, I squished 8 cardamon pods with the flat of a large knife. I then fried the chopped lamb in rapeseed oil on a high heat for 5 minutes and, once cooked, took it out and placed it on a plate. I added a wee bit extra oil and turned down the heat. Into the pan went the sliced onions, chopped garlic and ginger. That all cooked for 6 minutes followed by all the spices – ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and cayenne pepper. The recipe didn’t actually say when to add the cardamom seeds but I flung them in too at this point. After 1 minute, I added the lamb back into the pan along with the chicken stock, brought to the boil and let simmer for 1 hour on a low heat. After that, I added in the cubed sweet potato to simmer for another 30 minutes. Finally, I added in natural yoghurt and freshly chopped coriander. I served it with boiled rice and naan bread.

The verdict…

I’m sorry to say that Dear Husband didn’t like this curry. He gave it 4 marks out of 10. However, what I must point out is that he explained he’s not the best person to taste-test this recipe. Apparently, he had a ‘siege’ of stewing steak dinners for a period of time when he was younger and hasn’t recovered since; therefore, since then, he doesn’t like any type dish that has stewing-type meat in it. And yes, I did point out that he loves stew but apparently “that’s different!” . And yes, one of his favourite meals is homemade chicken tikka masala. Go figure. And men think us women are weird at times (!). Which reminds me of a male family member who shall remain nameless who…wait for this…doesn’t like onions and doesn’t like vinegar but eats pickled onions!!! You couldn't make it up! Lol!

The dish did not bode well with Dear Son either. One mouthful went in and one mouthful came out. Enough said.

Despite tonight’s verdicts from my two guinea pigs, I would still say that this is a very good recipe. To the point where I was almost going to lift the casserole dish and march across the road to my neighbours with it as I was sure they would have appreciated it!!! So, that’s two recipes in a matter of days that I won’t be making for the two boys again. Ah well, onwards and upwards. Chat to you all tomorrow.