Hi guys! Me and Hotpoint are bringing to life people's incredible food memories.
So the lovely Liz here sent in her food memory of her dad's amazing Balti curry,
and the best person to bring this back to life
for all of you lovely people, is the one and only Chetna.
Thank you Jamie, and thank you Liz for sending in this amazing memory.
By the way if you want to see more of these stories,
or win some brand new Hotpoint kitchen appliances,
click on the link and head to the Food Memories Hub.
In the meantime let me tell you about Liz and her dad.
Liz's dad was called Micheal and he loved to cook.
The memory of his Lamb Balti has really stuck with Liz.
She vividly remembers him sourcing all the spices,
which was much more difficult and unusual in the 80s then it is now.
There's so many layers of flavours going into this dish.
Cumin, garam masala, cardamom,
and it's made with beautiful lamb shoulder.
It's going to be really good, you've got to try this.
I'm going to start by toasting the spices.
I'm using Hotpoint induction hob which heats up nice and fast
and I'm going to get a pan on medium heat.
Add in 2 teaspoons of coriander seeds and 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds.
Dry roast that for around 1 minute.
So I'm going to get these into the pestle and mortar now.
I'm going to give it a good bash.
Once these have ground up I'm going to add
half a teaspoon of chili powder,
half a teaspoon of turmeric powder,
One teaspoon of garam masala,
3 to 4 green cardamom pods,
and 2 bay leaves.
Mix this up and leave it aside for the time being.
We are now going to get on with the Balti sauce.
We are going to get the pan back on the hob on medium heat.
Start with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in the pan.
Grate in 2cm of fresh ginger,
and a large clove of garlic,
Fry that for a minute or two.
The first time Liz's dad made this he forgot to put the lid on the mixer and it was everywhere!
So the kids chipped in and had to clear it all up before mum came back.
So today I'm going to grate 3 onions,
we're going to skip the blender.
This needs to cook down nice and slowly for 10-15 minutes until soft and golden.
This is really nice deep golden colour
and all these caramelized onions are going to add this beautiful flavour to the sauce
and it's ready for the tomatoes.
Now I would use fresh tomatoes but Liz's dad said that life's too short for that
so he preferred using tin tomatoes and that's what i'm doing today.
Squash it all with your hands.
Add in the wonderful spices and give it a good mix.
Pour over 500ml of boiling water,
We'll simmer this for 30 minutes and give it an occasional stir.
Another spice I'm gonna add to this is dried methi leaves.
Now this is not easily available
and this is something Liz's dad would have liked
because he liked to go out and look for these particular spices.
So it should bring Liz's memories flooding back.
I've also got half a teaspoon of tamarind paste,
half a teaspoon of honey
and a pinch of salt.
The sauce is ready now so I'm going to move it aside and get on with the lamb.
And for this dish I've done my usual trick and marinated big chunky shoulder meat
with yogurt and lots more spices.
I mixed 100ml of natural yogurt with a tablespoon of ground coriander
and a teaspoon each of ground cumin,
ground ginger,
chilli powder
turmeric
and salt.
I mixed that in with chunks of lamb.
Then I covered it and left it in the fridge for 2 hours.
Now it's ready I'm going to seal the meat in 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
and I'm going to fry these in batches.
Keep turning it and make sure it's brown all around.
Once your lamb is all nice and brown you're gonna stir it through into this lovely sauce.
You're gonna get the lid on and this is going to go into my Hotpoint oven
at 170C, 325 Fahrenheit.
Give that an hour and a half.
This is gonna make the lamb really tender and all the juices will go in and it's really good.
Wow! That smells so so good.
This should bring Liz's memories flooding back.
I can not wait to try this.
Liz you are going to absolutely love this, the lamb is so tender.
This is hopefully as good as your dad's Lamb Balti.
To help Liz cook it at home Hotpoint are giving her an induction hob.
And if you want to win a whole set of Hotpoint kitchen appliances
then click on the link and enter the competition.
Bye.