Slow-Cooked Lamb Rogan Josh

Another recipe I found from a food magazine, from the July 2011 issue of ABC's delicious magazine actually.  It was actually a full page advertisement for Patak's Rogan Josh, but either way it was easy and delicious.  Not to mention, slow cooker curry smells so incredibly good it makes me drool.  Another fun part of this recipe was discovering ingredients I've never used before, like curry leaves and cardamom pods.  I had never heard of curry leaves before!  As always, I had to reduce the recipe because my slow cooker is 'mini' sized.  I'll include the original recipe and my substitutions

Slow-Cooked Lamb Rogan Josh

2 T Sunflower oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
1.5kg diced lamb shoulder (I used.... ~700g cubed lamb)
2 onions (I used 1)
4 cm piece ginger, grated (I acutally used ~3t ginger paste)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 cup (150g) Patak's Rogan Josh Paste
2 T tomato paste
400g can chopped tomatoes
1 cup (250mL) beef stock (I always have veg stock cubes handy)
2 cinammon quills
6 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
20 fresh curry leaves
200 g thick Greek-style yogurt
Steamed rice and naan bread, to serve. 

1. Heat oil in pan over med-high heat, cook lamb for 3-4 minutes, turning until browned.  Put meat in slow cooker
2. Cook onion, ginger and garlic in pan over med heat for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add Rogan Josh paste and tomato paste, cooking for ~1 minute.
4. Add tomato and stock, bring to a simmer then pour into slow cooker. (Hey, this was a messy step!)
5. Add spices and most of the curry leaves to the slow cooker, add S&P and/or other spices to taste. 
6. Cook on low 6-8 hours (or high for 4) until reduced and thick.
7. To serve: garnish with remaining curry leaves, serve with yogurt, rice and naan.  Serves 4?

Ok so some notes on this recipe. It was awesome, but because of the way I played with the recipe, it was a very strong tomato flavour (read: acidic) which is something to consider.  Also, the cardamom pods?  Don't eat them.  If you have the misfortune to chomp down on one... it tastes kind of like burning and lysol.  Yet, they add such a delightful flavour to the food.  Treat them like bay leaves and try to remove them before serving.

The great thing about this recipe is that, aside from the lamb, most of the ingredients are things I would have around the house anyways. Boyfriend loves curries, so we usually have at least one open and one unopened jar of some kind of curry paste, whether it's a Butter Chicken, a Rogan Josh, a Madras or whatever.  And yes, it's usually Patak's.  The curry leaves here are great;  I'm usually wary of buying 'exotic' ingredients because I never know what else to do with them, but I've been adding them to food here and there, and they have been sitting in the fridge for about a month now and don't look like they're going bad yet.  Which is a mighty bonus.   The leftover cinammon sticks I plan to use for mulled wine, so that's a win too.  I always like a recipe where the leftover ingredients can still be useful.

I suppose it's a bit weird to be posting all these slow cooker recipes in August, but it's winter where I am and these are great winter comfort foods.

McCormick Beef & Red Wine Casserole

There is nothing quite as delicious smelling as, well, anything in a slow cooker.  A month or two ago, boyfriend and I purchased our first slow cooker at Target. It's a tiny little thing, only makes 2-4 servings (depending on how hungry you are), but that's just fine for the two of us.  I've had a lot of fun figuring things out with it, with moderate successes.  I found that ad-libbing things in the slow cooker can have mixed results.  The curries were good, but the vegetable soup I tried was not so much.

To this effect, yesterday I decided to try a packaged sauce for slow cooker foods.  McCormick's Beef & Red Wine casserole.  I can't even begin to describe how delicious it smelled, and despite making some considerable modifications to the recipe, it tasted amazing.  I'm sorry, but I can't stand cooked celery... so I made some substitutions.  Here's the recipe I made, based on the package recipe.

McCormick Slow Cookers Beef & Red Wine Casserole

~600 g cubed beef (chuck or blade)
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
6-8 button mushrooms, rinsed and thickly sliced
1x400g  sachet McCormick Slow Cookers Beef & Red Wine Sauce
1 cup red wine (I used a Wyndham Estate Bin 999 Merlot, it was on sale)
a splash water, for extra liquid
1-2 bay leaves, rinsed
Potatoes, peeled and cubed (to serve casserole on)

Casserole

1. Brown beef on high, put in slow cooker.
2. Sautee onions until clear and soft, add to slow cooker
3. Add carrots, mushrooms, garlic to slow cooker
4. In measuring cup (or glass of any sort I suppose) mix wine and sauce sachet, pour into slow cooker, stir to combine all ingredients. 
5. Add bay leaves.
6. Cook on high 4 hours or low 6-8 hours.

To serve

1. Add peeled and cubed potatoes to sauce pan full of cold water
2. Bring to boil, cook 15-20 minutes, until texture is as desired.

Serve casserole over warm potatoes.  I highly recommend having the rest of the wine with your dinner, but boyfriend also enjoyed a warm Porter (beer) with his.  The texture of this, while having more liquid (and less beef, onions, carrot) than the recipe called for was excellent, there was a bit of sauce, but it wasn't 'liquidy'.