🍽️
🇮🇳 Curry · India
Rogan Josh
Kashmiri lamb in mustard oil, yoghurt and Kashmiri chilli — deeply red, aromatic, never sharp.
Smoke the mustard oil
Neutralises raw pungency without scorching
One browning chance
Let the lamb take real colour — there is no second pass
Yoghurt one ladle at a time
Slow incorporation keeps it from splitting
Colour from Kashmiri
Brilliant red, not blazing heat — the meat brings the spice
Ingredients 6 servings
- 1 kg bone-in lamb shoulder or leg, cut into 4 cm pieces
- 4 tbsp mustard oil
- 200 g full-fat yoghurt, whisked smooth
- 4 dried Kashmiri red chillies, soaked in warm water 20 minutes and ground to a paste (or 2 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder)
- 1 tsp fennel powder
- 1 tsp dried ginger powder (sonth)
- ½ tsp asafoetida (hing)
- Whole spices: 8 green cardamom + 2 black cardamom, 1 cinnamon stick, 6 cloves, 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp salt
- A pinch of saffron, soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk
How to make it
- 1Heat the mustard oil in a heavy pan until it just begins to smoke, then pull it off the heat for a moment — letting it smoke neutralises the raw pungency without scorching — and return to medium heat, add the whole spices and bay leaf, and let them perfume the oil for 30 seconds.
- 2Add the lamb in a single layer and brown well on all sides for 8–10 minutes (this is the only browning the dish gets, so let the colour develop properly), then stir in the asafoetida, ginger powder and fennel powder and let them coat the meat in the hot oil for another minute.
- 3Whisk the yoghurt with the Kashmiri chilli paste and a tablespoon of cold water, then add it to the pan a ladleful at a time stirring continuously after each addition — going slowly keeps the yoghurt from splitting — add the salt, lower the heat and cook covered for 10 minutes until the yoghurt has melted into a glossy red base.
- 4Pour in 500 ml of hot water, bring back to a simmer, then drop the heat to its lowest and braise covered for an hour and 20 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes, until the lamb yields to a spoon and the gravy is thin, glossy and a deep mahogany red; swirl the saffron milk through 5 minutes before the end without fully stirring it out.
- 5Rest off the heat for 10 minutes before serving with steamed basmati — Rogan Josh is meant to be soup-like, brilliantly coloured and aromatic rather than spicy hot, the heat supplied by the meat, the colour by the chillies, and the perfume by everything else.
Nutritional info
per serving (~350 g)
Calories 620 kcal
Protein 40 g
Carbs 12 g
Fat 44 g
Fiber 2 g
Estimated nutritional values.
Pairs perfectly with
🍚 Steamed basmati rice
🫓 Warm naan or roti
🥒 Cool cucumber raita
🥭 Mango chutney
