Spiced lamb lollipops with korma sauce and toasted almonds

Categories: March

Ingredients

• 12 lamb cutlets, French trimmed
• 3 tbsp cumin seeds, lightly toasted and ground
• thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 200g blanched almonds
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 1/2 tsp cardamon
• 1 tsp butter
• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 1 tsp ground tumeric
• 1 red onion, finely sliced
• 1/2 400g tin chopped canned tomatoes
• 500ml natural yogurt
• sprig of fresh coriander

Directions

1. Lay the chops out, and massage in the ground cumin and the grated ginger and about 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Then leave to marinate for at least an hour, but preferably overnight.

2. Toast the almonds under a hot grill or in an oven until light brown. When cool, place in a plastic bag, squeeze all the air out of it, knot the end and smash with a rolling pin until the nuts are crushed. Keep to one side.

3. Heat a saucepan and toast the pepper, cloves, cinnamon and cardamon until a shade darker in colour. Remove and grind in a pestle and mortar.

4. Melt the butter in the hot pan and when sizzling, add the garlic, tumeric and onion. Cook for a few minutes until soft, then add the tomatoes and ground spices. Stew the tomatoes down before adding the yogurt. Bring to the boil, stirring, and turn the heat down so that the yogurt simmers gently. It will probably curdle a little, but don’t worry, a blast from a hand blender will sort that out. Cook gently for about 20 minutes until the sauce begins to thicken. Season carefully with salt and turn the heat off.

5. When you’re ready to serve, preheat a ridged griddle pan on a back ring of your cooker. Season the lamb chops with salt and pepper, griddle for 90 seconds each side or until cooked medium. Quickly blend the sauce, if it has curdled and serve with the almonds and salad, if you like.

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