Topic: Traditional lamb curry, based on Anjum Anand's Rustic Rogan Josh

[Peripatetic Phil]

I work with Anjum Anand and she has given me some tips for cooking the perfect Rustic Rogan Josh which I thought you might all find useful! (Please see below)

Firstly, using lamb rump or well trimmed neck fillets will change your cooking time for a bought sauce to about 6 minutes and the meat is still tender. Using pieces of leg or shoulder will take longer but the flavour is better and it is cheaper.

There are so many ways to cook Indian food but frying your spices first will help bring out their best flavour which will permeate the whole dish.

Thank you, Annabel.  Can you please confirm that you did indeed mean to type "6 minutes" and not "16 minutes" or "60 minutes" in the anticipated time needed to cook lamb rump or well-trimmed neck fillets ?  This seems an exceptionally short time to me, and would also not really allow the lamb to take up the flavour from the spices ...

** Phil.

[Malc.]

I have used both rump and neck fillets extensively over the years. Rump cut into suitable bite sized pieces will certainly cook in no time at all and is my preferred choice for kebabs for this reason. Neck fillet can vary, I have had very good quality fillet from butchers that does cook very quickly but from supermarkets, I generally find that it needs a long slow cook.

Mind you, I also wonder at times as to whether what supermarkets say is neck fillet is actually, shoulder fillet. ASDA changed labels almost over night from neck fillet to shoulder fillet, yet the meat within the packet looked very much the same. Buyer beware.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I have used both rump and neck fillets extensively over the years. Rump cut into suitable bite sized pieces will certainly cook in no time at all and is my preferred choice for kebabs for this reason.

Would you agree, Malc, that lamb (and rump in particular) actually has two quite different modes of cooking; there is the state of cooking that it achieves after a very short time, in which it is cooked and tender with a very light texture, and then as one continues to cook, it starts to harden and go more firm, to the point where it becomes virtually unchewable, and then, if one continues to cook it. it once agains starts to soften and acquire a more fibrous texture that after further cooking become optimally soft and finally start to break up ?

** Phil.

[Malc.]

I can't answer that based on my experiences Phil, as I only ever use rump for short cooking. Though I would certainly agree that this has been the case with certain neck fillets I have tried. As with most dark meats though, I imagine that it would indeed become tough and then begin to soften again, as cooking time continues.

[Curryking32000]

I have eaten this many times all over India, they almost always used goat meat, on the bone and marinated over night.  The real thing is excellent albeit more bone than meat most of the time.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I have eaten this many times all over India, they almost always used goat meat, on the bone and marinated over night.  The real thing is excellent albeit more bone than meat most of the time.

What exactly is it that you have eaten. CK ?   Is it a traditional Indian goat curry, or something else ?
** Phil.

[Curryking32000]

What exactly is it that you have eaten. CK ?   Is it a traditional Indian goat curry, or something else ?
** Phil.
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I've had goat rogan josh, vindaloo, jalfriezi and many others, many times across the width and breadth of India.  I've eaten less known dishes including mutton Hydrabadi, mutton Chilli Fry and many others which I can't remember off the top of my head.  I always keep the menus from the restaurants and tick off what I've had.  Will find them up and let you know what they are.  You would have never heard of most of them.