The other day I had half a roast leg of lamb left over and not much in the
way of other fresh ingredients and not much time to make dinner. So this is
what I did using what was to hand in the kitchen and garden. Roast pork
would do well too and I suppose you could use beef or chicken. The
quantities of the main ingredients are not crucial. Total time 20 minutes.
Aromatic lamb and potatos (quantities for two serves)
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Two medium potatos peeled and diced
A knob of butter and a splash of plain olive oil (EVOO not required)
An onion peeled and sliced
A knob of green ginger half the size of your thumb peeled and grated
Half a capsicum, red is pretty, diced
A cup of lean cooked lamb diced
1 teaspoon FRESH garam masala
Salt to taste
Half a lemon
A handful of FRESH mint leaves plucked and chopped.
Par boil the potatos in salted water 8-10 minutes. While they are cooking
prepare the other ingredients. Fry onion and ginger in oil and butter on
medium heat, they should soften and colour slightly. Add the drained
potatos, stir to coat and in a minute add the capsicum. Continue frying
until the veges are almost cooked. Add the meat and heat through. Sprinkle
with garam masala, a good squeeze of lemon juice and salt to taste, and turn
to coat. If the mix looks dry add a splash more OO, it should be glossy not
dripping. Put it on the plates and sprinkle liberally with mint. Serve
with a green salad or coleslaw.
Note on flavourings.
Making your own fresh ground garam masala is important, it will lose its
aroma quite quickly even in a sealed jar. There are many combinations of
spices you can use for GM, this one was mainly "sweet" spices. For herbs I
used half mint (large bright green leaves and red stems) and half Vietnamese
mint (also called laksa herb not really a mint) which has a peppery bite,
you could also use coriander leaf or just mint alone or some mixture.
David