A recipe for transforming tomatoes into something special.

TAMATAR GOSHT

Tamatar gosht literally means, tomato and meat - I’m sharing a treasured family recipe of slow cooked meat with seasonal tomatoes, tempered with curry leaves and spices. This isnt a curry but more of a thick stew, comforting for autumn and winter and one you must cook for the night of your transformation ritual.

Main ingredients:

5-6 tbsp vegetable oil, corn or sunflower

2 tsp coriander seeds

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 large cinnamon stick

1- 2 large onions, chopped

1 tbsp each of grated ginger and crushed garlic

15 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped

0.8 kg/ 1.76 lb diced lamb for casserole or casserole beef (make a veggie version with mushrooms, half cooking time)

Salt to taste

3 green chillis 

1 red chili

1-2 tbsp tomato puree

Tempering:

1 tbsp panch puran (a Bengali whole spice blend of fenugreek, Nigella seed, cumin seed, black mustard seed and fennel seed in equal parts, can make up yourself or buy from any Asian grocer)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

5-10 curry leaves, dried but preferably fresh

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves

Takes about 1 - 1 1/2 hours to prepare and cook and serves about 3- 4 people served with rice or even with naan. 

Method:

1. Heat a large saucepan with the oil and once hot fry the cumin, coriander and cinnamon. When the spices start spluttering add the onions and cook until translucent then add ginger and garli. Fry until the raw garlic smell leaves, careful not to burn the contents. Add the chillis now too.

2. Add the tomatoes and cook and keep stirring until the water runs half dry and then add the lamb - cover and cook for 30 minutes covered, on low heat. Stir occasionally.

3. When the water runs quite dry, turn up the heat and fry and add the tomato puree at this point. (10 minutes or so). Keep frying until you are left with the thick, red, fragrant paste surrounding the lamb and the lamb is cooked through.

4. In a small frying pan heat some oil, add the panch puran and curry leaves until they splutter and add to the lamb. Serve with a garnish of coriander leaves and rice or naan and some Greek yoghurt.

Tips:

Keeps in the fridge for upto 2 days, better the next day.Frozen on the same day, becomes even better once defrosted and slowly re-heated on low fire.