" Got any hints for Indian curry spicing, yogurt or cream-based sauces, or anything else?"

Muglai Raan – Spiced Lamb

Take a large slab of lamb, mutton or goat – fatty is best 🙂 Shoulder is a great cut, but leg will do.

Squeeze lemon juice (from real lemons, not a bottle) over it and let it sit for about an hour.

Make up a spice blend from the following powdered spices: chilli, cumin, turmeric and garam masala; basically even quantities of each.

Chop a few whole chillis, a few cloves of minced garlic, some coriander and a good squirt of tomato puree – stir into yoghurt along with the spices.

Quantities should be sufficient to cover the meat and spiciness "to taste".

Cover the meat both sides and leave overnight.

Next day … slow cook on a low heat for as long as possible. All day, if you can.

The meat should be so tender you can spoon it off … serve over boiled rice, with some vegetables or just wolf it down!

Hasina Kebab

Essentially the same process, but using golf ball sized chunks of lamb.

This is a faster cooking method, but the quick lemon juice bath and overnight sit in yoghurt will tenderise the meat.

To cook, put together on kebab skewers with thick slices of onion, green pepper, anything that will survive a BBQ … then BBQ them, or drop them into a tandoor 🙂

Both recipes should work with beef, bison or any grass-ruminator really.

Beef Stroganoff

Left over beef of any variety – cut into strips. Or cook up some fresh beef (steak), let it rest and then cut into slices.

Slice up some mushrooms (Chesnut mushrooms are my favourite) and shallow fry in butter, lard or fat rendered from your own meat cooking.

Chuck in the meat and when it's all tender pour in some cream … reduce the heat and let it all go a nice brown colour. Pep it up with a shot of smoky whisky if you like – Laphroaig is best 🙂

Stroganoff is often served with thick, flat pasta like Fettuccine stirred in, which you can do (as a "cheat") … or stir in some leafy green vegetables like spinach.

This is one that works perfectly with samphire (also called sea asparagus), but spinach, sea spinach or asparagus would do really well and will all cook in the time the cream is resting and colouring. You need a a good flavour punch of iron and salt to counter the cream with this one and those vegetables are sound. Brocolli would do well, too, even shredded savoy cabbage.

You can see – my recipes are principles, rather than 2 cups of this, one teaspoon of that … I just go with guidelines and taste.

Have fun …

I've never frozen yoghurt – the sauces are easy enough to make up fresh. It may … but I don't think it would work. The spice mix can be pretty much whatever you like – the emphasis is upon colour, aromatics and depth hence the holy trinity of cumin, turmeric and coriander (which prefer as fresh and chopped although there is some in garam masala). You could easily just go with chilli powder, cumin, turmeric and coriander as powder. Another twist is to use fenugreek (also called methi) – fresh or dried leaves to add flavour, colour and aromatics instead of fresh coriander leaves.

Again, that's the great thing about currying meat – the mix can be tuned to your preference, but adding equal quantities of each spice is a good start. Boost one, lower another and add yet another if you like.

Over to the Stroganoff ... dairy products mute spiciness, evidenced by drinking milk if you've eaten a really hot chilli. Garlic would likely end up as an odd sharp background twang without the flavour. I leave it out, although the meat itself would most likely have been long cooked in onions and garlic anyway, so will have that subtle flavour within it. Mustard seems to work better at retaining its flavour and bite when it is within dairy sauces and I would recommend a small dot of yellow English mustard, rather than Dijon or a grain mustard.

Worcestershire Sauce is a flavour enhancer - this is great if you're using lean, bland meat or bland mushrooms, or trying desperately to pep up some non-meat lentil dish ... but we're using good flavoursome meat and flavoursome mushrooms. Dulling those naturally good flavours with something that is largely anchovy is not necessary. Feel free to try it - it won't curdle the cream.