Name: How To Make British Indian Restaurant (BIR) Style Lamb Bhuna
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: British/Indian
Ingredients: 2 tbsp ghee or rapeseed (canola) oil; 1/2 onion - finely chopped; 1/4 red bell pepper - diced; 1 tbsp garlic and ginger paste; 2 tbsp coriander (cilantro) stalks - finely chopped; 70ml (1/4 cup) tomato puree; 1 tbsp mixed powder; 1 tbsp tandoori masala; 250ml (1 cup) base sauce; 300g (11oz) pre-cooked lamb; 1 tbsp natural plain yogurt; 2 tbsp coriander (cilantro) leaves - finely chopped; Juice of one lime; 1 red spur chilli - cut into thin rings; Salt to taste

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This restaurant style lamb bhuna will get you great restaurant style results.

I have made a lot of beef and lamb bhuna curries over the past year. The authentic Indian bhunas are quite a lot harder to make than this restaurant style bhuna. Bhuna cooking is a style of cooking in India where hot oil is used to release the flavours of a long list of spices before adding raw meat - often cut into small pieces on the bone.

Once the meat is added, stock or water is sprinkled into the pan in small amounts which is then cooked into the meat.

This process is repeated for an hour or more until the meat becomes fall off the bone tender and the flavour in the resulting dry curry is out of this world.

lamb bhuna curry — Delicious with a thick gravy that is perfect picked up with a naan or chapati.

How is curry house style lamb bhuna different?

Authentic bhuna cooking as mentioned above would not be possible in a busy Indian curry house so the recipe has been changed.

BIR lamb bhuna is still a dry curry with a rich thick gravy but it is made in a fraction of the time as cooked meat is used instead of slow cooking raw meat.

Also, at curry houses, a base curry sauce is used which becomes the sauce for the curry. This too is a time saver but it also gives the lamb bhuna its unique curry house flavour and texture.

Many Indian restaurants add a drop or two of red food colouring to this dish which gives the meat an attractive pink glow. I didn't do this but you can if you wish.

The food colouring adds no flavour but it does look good.

What do you serve lamb bhuna with?

If you'd like to make this curry into a feast, you've come to the right place. You could just go for a side of Basmati rice or mushroom fried rice.
If you'd like to make naans, why not try one of these? Instant naans, Peshwari naans, stove top naans, keema naans, garlic naans, tandoor naans (if you have a tandoor oven), or if you're cooking outdoors, karahi naans. Oh, and really easy but just as delicious are homemade chapatis.

You might also like to serve up an easy curry house style tarka dal or slowly cook dal makhani.

Want to start your lamb bhuna off meal right? How about fried shop bought poppadoms or if you're feeling ambitious, make your own poppadoms from scratch and serve them with coriander chutney, red onion chutney, and/or tamarind chutney.

Forward Planning

As with most of my British Indian restaurant style curries, you will want to pre cook your meat and make a base sauce first. Once this is done, you can literally cook this lamb bhuna curry in under 10 minutes.

It is always a good ideas to prepare your ingredients before starting cooking.

You don't want to have to start looking for ingredients when that pan is hot.

Curry Sauce

I have written a large and small version of my curry sauce recipe which will need to me made before cooking this recipe.

The large version is made just like they do in the best curry houses. Make a large batch for best results. It keeps in the fridge for three days and freezes well.

The small batch version works well too though it's not as authentic.

PRE-COOKED MEAT

I pre-cook meat in two ways. Most restaurants slow cook their meat in a spicy sauce such as this one for this recipe. They usually swirl in a little of the cooking juices too for extra flavour.

If you're feeling adventurous, you might like to add tandoori lamb tikka instead.

There is another option too if you're in a rush. Simmer the meat in your base sauce until it is really tender.

Don't rush this! Simmering the meat in the base sauce will also give the sauce a delicious meaty flavour.

Following are some step by step photos I took of the cooking process.

Frying onions, peppers and chillies — Heat the oil over medium-high heat and fry the onion, bell pepper and and chillies for about 5 minutes

Adding garlic and ginger paste to the pan — Stir in the garlic and ginger paste and let it fry for about 30 seconds.

stirring in the tomato puree — Stir in the tomato puree and bring to a bubbling simmer.

Adding base curry sauce to the pan — Stir in a ladle or two of the base sauce. This is a dry curry but you can add more from time to time if the curry is looking too dry.

adding meat to the pan — Add the pre-cooked lamb to the pan. You can add more base sauce if needed. Only stir if the sauce is sticking to the pan.

Simmering lamb bhuna — As the curry simmers, the base sauce with caramelise to the side of the pan. Scrape this in for more flavour. Season with salt to taste to serve.

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Here are more curry house curry favourites you might like to try!

Chicken Korma
Chicken Madras
Chicken Dhansak
Lamb Rogan Josh
Lamb Vindaloo
Chicken Chilli Garlic
Chicken Patia

Have you tried this lamb bhuna recipe?

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Yield: 2