With warmer weather approaching, my stock and crock pot have found themselves slowly being neglected. Spring and summer in Ottawa mean shifting diets towards including more seasonal produce like dandelion leaves and fiddle heads. Some local farms with poly-tunnels (plastic enclosed green houses) will soon bring a variety of fruits and vegetables to the local open air markets, including the annual Lansdowne and new Main Street Farmers' Markets. Why do I make the distinction? Some open air markets, like the Parkdale one, host vendors who sell produce that come from the same distributors as those that supply local mega-marts. As such, the fruits and vegetables are sourced no more locally than Florida oranges or Mexican tomatoes in the produce section of the Superstore.

Incidentally, the Parkdale Market has one vendor who decided to sell me a non-locally sourced Spanish onion for $1, when his display clearly read $0.75/each. After some argument, I gave up and paid a dollar for my onion. I was pressed for time and wanted to load up a batch of lamb korma to braise before heading out to dinner with my better half's family.

Before you ask, the Korma was not a "scratch" recipe, but I did completely ignore the instructions from the can of Patak's curry sauce.

Patak's Lamb Korma Curry Sauce
With shoulder and stew lamb on sale at the Metro this week and the can of Patak's curry sauce listing no multi-syllabic preservatives on its label, I couldn't resist.

However, I find braised dishes taste best if left to age in the fridge overnight after cooking. Flavours intensify and any fat pools at the top. It then solidifies and can be easily removed. This is why I usually make a slow cooked curry a night or two before it is served. Hence, the korma was Tuesday's evening's. The korma was braised the previous Sunday.:

Lamb Korma Served
It was served on basmati rice with a simple salad of cucumbers and tomatoes. The curry's flavour was wonderful, savory and mild, punctuated with coconut and tumeric. Best of all, the lamb was meltingly tender, true alchemy converting some rather unpromising scraps of meat and bone into something palatable.

To make it, I cut up 6 pieces of bone-in stew lamb into 2-3 inch cubes, estimated weight of 2 lbs, and placed them into a metal bowl.

Stew Lamb

I added salt, freshly ground pepper, and vegetable oil. Once well mixed, I seared the lamb on all sides in a metal pan over medium heat, approximately 2 minutes per side. Once seared, the lamb was placed into the pot of a crock pot (aka: slow cooker)

I deglazed the pan with a frenched onion and a pinch of salt, lowering the heat slightly below medium.

Onions

Once softened, I added the contents of one 284 mL can of curry sauce to the pan and heated it to a simmer with the onions, scraping any remaining fond at the bottom of the pan.

After simmering for 2-3 minutes, I topped the lamb with the onion/curry mixture.

Topped

To braise, I turned the crock pot to high and brought the liquid back to a simmer. Then, I switched the crock pot to low and left it for 3 hours.

When cool, it was placed in the fridge.

To serve, Jenn lifted the fat off with a soup spoon and re-heated the curry in a non-stick pan under medium heat until simmering.

Reheated

Served

Simple! No fuss...No muss.



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