Dee Auntie’s Dhansak

Name: Dee Auntie’s Dhansak
Yield: Serves 8
Ingredients: 1 tsp red chilli powder; 1 large tbsp crushed ginger, garlic and fresh green-chilli mix (you can buy these at Indian food outlets or make your own, whizzing with a little water, 2 chillies, 8 cloves of garlic and a large lump of peeled ginger cut into small pieces); 1 400 g tin chopped tomatoes; 5 tbsp sunflower oil; Salt to taste; 2 lb leg of lamb, chopped by the butcher into small chunks; 3 finely chopped onions; ½ tsp black pepper; Salt; 2 tbsp cumin/coriander powder mixture; 1 tbsp garam masala; 2 tbsp channa dhal; ½ tsp fenugreek seeds; 12 pickling onions; 2 star anise; A teacupful of the following dhals, all hulled: masoor (red), toor, moog and urd; 3 pints water; 2 limes; 3 tbsp tamarind paste. Buy tamarind in a block, tear off half and soak in water just boiled (the water should come ½ in. over the soaking tamarind). Leave for two hours while you get on with other stuff. Then crush the mixture with your hands and push through a sieve.; 1 small pumpkin or 3 courgettes; 8 curry leaves; ½ tsp black mustard seeds; 1 tsp turmeric; Bunch mint; ½ tsp fennel seeds; Bunch coriander; 2 tbsp grated jaggery; 1 small butternut squash

Preparation info

Serves
8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Settler's Cookbook

By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Published 2009

About

The list of ingredients is long, and the recipe appears daunting, but put aside half a day, turn on music and slowly cook this pot of myriad overlapping tastes. You and it are surely worth it. I classify the ingredients so they can be piled separately and used when needed. It is best made with meat from a leg of lamb.

Ingredients

2 lb leg of lamb, chopped by the butcher into small chunks
Salt to taste
5 tbsp sunflower oil

Main course
Gluten-free

Method

Grind together in a coffee grinder the fenugreek seeds, black mustard seeds, fennel seeds and star anise.
Now, wash the meat and boil in half the water with salt and half of the garlic, chilli and ginger paste. You want it almost cooked.
Meanwhile, rinse water through the dhals and boil in the rest of the water with salt until it has cooked to soft. You