I thoroughly enjoy eating any style of dish when it’s made with quality ingredients, but if I had to pick my favourite style of food it would be a well made Indian-style curry.

I’ve yet to visit India myself but it’s definitely on my ‘to-do list’ as I have had many friends go there and rave about the place. Incredible stories of a vibrant, exciting culture full of colour and tempting aromas. As a cook, I love making Indian food because of its depth of flavour, diverse techniques, regional differences and historical influences.

Why not give my Lamb shoulder and cardamom curry recipe a go yourself? There are quite a few ingredients in this one but I can promise you it is worth the effort. This recipe has been passed on to many friends who say that it is now a regular at their table. This curry is rich, sweet and spicy which is a perfect match for James Squire IPA. The bitterness of the IPA cleans the palate while the malty flavours carry the spices perfectly. The curry base will keep for weeks in the fridge or for months in the freezer, so why not make a big batch of the base and keep it for your next meal.

Lamb shoulder and cardamom curry with James Squire IPA

Serves 4 - 6

For the curry base
5 green cardamom pods
2 black cardamom pods
1 teaspoon onion or nigella seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
150g ghee
2 onions finely diced
1cm piece fresh ginger grated
2cm piece fresh turmeric grated
2 cloves of garlic grated
3 large red chillis chopped with the seeds left in
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon ground asafoetida
1 tablespoon salt
60g jaggery (a type of brown palm sugar) grated or pounded in a mortar and pestle
500ml malt vinegar

For the lamb
1.3kg lamb shoulder, bone in and fat on
500ml chicken stock

For serving
250g baby English spinach
Lightly roasted tomato, 1 each (optional)
Tahini, just a little for drizzling (optional)

Curry paste
Use a mortar and pestle to roughly grind together the cardamom (both types), fennel, fenugreek, cumin and onion seeds.

Melt the ghee in a heavy based saucepan over a high heat then add the ground spices. Cook until they are golden and popping. Add the onion, ginger, turmeric, garlic, chilli, bay leaves, asafoetida and salt to the pan. Cook until the onion is nice and soft and a rich brown colour (about 5 minutes,stirring often as it will stick easily).

Turn down the heat. Add the jaggery and vinegar and let everything cook down until you have a rich curry base (will take about 20 minutes). Taste for seasoning, you want a powerful hot curry base that is well balanced in flavour. Taste for salt, sour, sweet and heat. Allow to cool.

For the lamb
Rub the lamb with the curry base (use it all), cover and sit in the fridge overnight.

Preheat your oven to 170C. Place the lamb and the entire curry base in a roasting tin. Cover half way up the shoulder with chicken stock then put in the oven. The lamb will take about three hours to cook, but throughout the cooking process you will need to keep topping up the liquid if it reduces too much. Make sure you keep turning the lamb: as one side darkens, expose the other. If your lamb becomes well coloured all over with a rich sauce but the lamb still needs a little more cooking, cover with foil for the remainder of the time. Generally, cook uncovered for two hours and covered for one hour. The lamb is cooked when the flesh falls off the bone.

To serve
Scatter some baby spinach on a platter, rip off the meat and place on top of the spinach and pour on the sauce. If using the tomato and tahini, then squish the tomato juice all over the meat and drizzle with tahini. Serve with a big bowl of basmati rice and James Squire IPA.

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