Lamb Rogan Josh

Lamb Rogan Josh. Succulent braised goat or lamb in a yogurt based sauce flavored with fennel, dried ginger, cloves and black cardamom. This Indian dish gets its fiery red color(rogan) from Kashmiri chilies.

Whenever I crave a different meat preparation without the typical onion-garlic- tomato masala, this rogan josh delivers. Rogan Josh is an indian dish originating from the state of Kashmir in India. Non vegetarian especially goat or mutton dishes are at the heart of kashmiri cuisine. This recipe comes from my aunt, a true blue Kashmiri. To tell you the truth, I had eaten it all wrong before I ate rogan josh prepared by her.

I tasted rogan josh the first time some 6-8 years back. While the meat slow cooked on the stove, I could tell that it did not smell like the curries which we were used to eating in our home. The liquorice aroma of fennel & the smokiness of dried ginger kept the house smelling wonderful till quite a few hours later. The vibrant red hue of the dish was indicative of  its essential character, of royalty, of feast.

About Rogan Josh

Rogan dish is an indian dish originating from the Kashmir region of India with roots in Persia. Meat dishes are at the heart of kashmiri cuisine and this recipe comes from my aunt, a true blue Kashmiri. Rogan (fat) from the meat and josh (intensity (of color)) from the kashmiri red chillies, combined with the warming flavors of ginger, fennel & hing, each morsel of this dish is a true delight. You can easily do it wrong by choosing a lean meat (like chicken) for making rogan josh. It is not rogan josh unless the meat cooks in its own fat plus the aromatic & bold infusion of whole black cardamoms, bay leaf and sharp indian cinnamon or cassia bark to develop a robust, distinctive taste.

I tried my aunt's recipe twice, it didn't come out great the first time. I think I over did the ginger, but the second time it turned out insanely good. She told me to use ground fennel the way I would use coriander powder in day today north indian recipes. Meaning use it liberally! Using mustard oil is the authentic but since it is hard to source in the west, I would suggest to substitute with any neutral oil in this recipe.

Ingredients Needed for Lamb Rogan Josh

The soul of authentic Rogan Josh is spices, but nothing out of the ordinary except maybe black cardamom and asafetida. Those are the two spices that I haven't spotted in American grocery stores yet. Rest you will find quite easily without paying a visit to indian grocer. Here is a list of ingredients :-

• Lamb/Goat. Lamb shoulder is the best cut because it has a good amount of marble and it cooks super tender. However, you can easily use the packaged lamb stew meat from the meat aisle. If you are using goat meat, I go for baby goat mixed pieces because thats the best I can find here in United States.
• Spices - As I mentioned earlier, you can find everything except a few in stores. Here are a few wonderful substitutions:- 1) Use Paprika in place of Kashmiri Chili Powder. 2) Skip black cardamom. This spice has a distinctive woody taste which is hard to substitute. 3) Asafetida or Hing is used to imitate the umami similar to onion or garlic in rogan josh. I would suggest adding 2-3 cloves of smashed garlic instead.
• Mustard Oil. Authentic Rogan Josh is cooked in virgin mustard oil. Mustard Oil is a very popular cooking oil in North Indian cuisine but again it can be hard to source in United States. I suggest using Ghee (clarified butter) in place of mustard oil.

Cooking Rogan Josh

Cooking Rogan Josh on slow heat, continuously tending to it is the right technique. You cannot dump everything in a pot and walk away. You can read the detailed recipe in recipe card below but here are a few key steps of the cooking process that I want to highlight.

• We start by dry roasting the spices and grinding them. Roasting the spices awakens the oils in them and once udder freshly ground, they taste so much better than powdered ones.
• Slowly add the kashmiri chili powder and thinned out yogurt simultaneously to the browned lamb meat. Use full fat plain yogurt. The moisture of the yogurt prevents the kashmiri chili from burning and the fat pf yogurt helps in bringing out their beautiful color.
• Rogan josh is not a curry. Its not too saucy. The masala base is thick enough to stick to the meat and the oil forms major part of the sauce. The meat cooks in its own juices and we just use ½ cup water for a pound and half of meat.

Serve Rogan Josh with roti, naan or plain steamed rice.