My Little Kitchen Mughlai Lamb Gosht (Slow Cooker)

Source video by My Little Kitchen on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules.

Shamster's Mughlai gosht is the regal end of Indian curry, a whole cup of clarified butter, cashews and cardamom blitzed into a paste, mace and nutmeg as the finishing aromatic. Her hob version uses a heavy pot for 45 minutes; the slow cooker version preserves every hob step that builds flavour (marinade, whole-spice ghee bloom, lamb sear, tomato cook-down, onion-and-cashew folded through) then replaces the 45-minute hob simmer with 4 hours low. The result is the same falls-apart lamb in a glossy butter-and-cashew gravy. Naan, no rice, Shamster's call.

Ingredients

• 1 kgbone-in lamb (leg), cut into medium curry pieces
• 3 tbspginger-garlic paste, from 35 g garlic + 25 g ginger + 3-4 tbsp water
• 2 tspfine salt
• 2 tspKashmiri chilli powder
• 1 tspground cumin
• 4 tspground coriander
• 0.5 tspturmeric

• 250 mlclarified butter (ghee)

• 4 leavesbay leaves
• 2 sticks (thumb-sized)cinnamon sticks

• 450 gfresh tomatoes, skin on, blitzed to a puree in a food processor (no water)

• 60 gshop-bought pre-fried onions, ground to a fine puree with a little water

• 30 gunsalted cashews, ground to a paste with the spices below and 2 tbsp water
• 8 podsgreen cardamom pods, ground with the cashews
• 8 clovescloves, ground with the cashews

• 0.25 tspground nutmeg
• 0.25 tspground mace

• 500 mlboiling water, from a recently boiled kettle

• 4 chilliesgreen chillies, slit halfway up (add late)

Method

1. In a large bowl, toss the lamb pieces with the ginger-garlic paste, salt, Kashmiri chilli powder, cumin, coriander and turmeric. Cover and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

   ~30 min

2. Heat the clarified butter in a wide heavy pan over a medium-high heat. When hot, add the bay leaves and cinnamon sticks and let them sizzle for 15 seconds.

   ~1 min

3. Add the marinated lamb. Sear hard for 8-10 minutes on a high heat, stirring regularly, until the natural juices have released and the clarified butter is starting to come around the edges of the meat.

   ~10 min

4. Pour in the blitzed fresh tomato puree. Cook on medium-high for 8-10 minutes, stirring, until the moisture has evaporated and the clarified butter is once again coming around the edges.

   ~10 min

5. Reduce the heat to medium. Stir in the pre-fried onion puree, the cashew-cardamom-clove paste, and the ground mace and nutmeg. Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring, to bloom the paste in the ghee.

   ~5 min

6. Tip everything into the slow cooker. Pour in the 500 ml boiling water and stir to combine.

   ~2 min

7. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours, or high for 2.5 hours, until the lamb is fork-tender and the gravy is glossy and rich.

   ~240 min

8. Scatter over the slit green chillies for the last 30 minutes if using.

   ~30 min

9. Serve with naan or paratha. The gravy is rich; rice works too but Shamster recommends naan for the regal experience.

   ~2 min

Frequently asked