Name: Keralan Lamb Curry
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Keralan
Ingredients: 3 tbsp coconut or rapeseed (canola) oil; 30 curry leaves – fresh or frozen; 2 red onions – finely chopped; 2 green chillies – finely chopped; 1 x 5cm (2 inch) ginger – finely chopped; 10 cloves garlic – finely chopped; 2 tomatoes – diced; 1 - 2 tbsp Kashmiri chillie powder; 4 tbsp coriander powder; 1 tsp turmeric powder; 1 tsp black pepper; 1.5k (2 to 3 lbs.) lamb or mutton leg or shoulder on the bone, cut small; 250ml (1 cup) coconut milk; Salt to taste

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I learned this recipe in Kerala. This Keralan lamb curry is amazing and easy to prepare too.

This Keralan lamb curry is one of those recipes I fell in love with from first bite! It's so good, I featured a low calorie version in my cookbook 'The Curry Guy Light'. In that recipe, I simply used less oil and light coconut milk.

This is the way I learned to make it though. You can use any vegetable oil with a high smoking point but traditionally this Keralan lamb curry is made with a generous amount of coconut oil. That's definitely the way I think you'll enjoy it most.

About this recipe.

The first meal my wife and I ever ordered in Kerala was Mutton Mappas or Keralan lamb curry. It was our first night stay near Munnar.

We sat outside enjoying the scenery and asked for the restaurant's specialty dishes. Mutton Mappas was one of them and we could see why! This is so delicious but a bit difficult to eat as the mutton or lamb is cut into small pieces and cooked on the bone until melt in the mouth tender.

You need to really get in there with your hand and savour every last bite. We ate this with our right hands, scooping up rice and dipping it into the curry, grabbing a piece of meat as we did.

Although you could use lamb or mutton off the bone, I really recommend cooking this Keralan lamb curry with bone-in meat as it adds flavour!

Where can you purchase lamb on the bone?

Good Asian butchers will be able to supply you with the exact cuts of lamb or mutton. Ask for curry cuts on the bone are these are asked for often.

If you're feeling ambitious and have a good knife, you could also butcher lamb should or leg on your own but it's far easier to purchase already done for you.

What is the difference between mutton and Keralan lamb curry?

Lamb is much easier to come by in most supermarkets and butchers. This is meat from the young sheep, under a year old.

Mutton has a stronger and more gamey flavour. It is meat from sheep that are older than a year old and often a couple of years old. I prefer mutton in a curry but you might find the meat too strong. I recommend giving both a try to see which you prefer.

What makes this Keralan lamb curry a 'mappas'?

Mappas curries are all about the coriander powder. There’s a lot of it in this recipe. It is the citrusy flavour of the ground coriander that really make this curry.

The sauce is spectacular, spooned over rice and I rarely eat much of the meat as this one is all about the tasty sauce the bone-in mutton produces. You could also make this recipe with chicken but lamb or mutton are the most popular options in Kerala.

Working ahead.

As with all Indian food, tasting as you go is a great idea. Get those flavours right and you are in for a treat. You can do all of the cooking a day or two ahead of time except for adding the coconut milk.

That is best added when you heat the curry up to serve.

How long can you store this curry in the fridge?

Like most curries and stews, the flavour of this Keralan lamb curry will actually improve as the flavours develop on sitting.

So you could make this curry a few days ahead of serving and it will be even better. Generally speaking, you could store this curry, covered tightly in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Can you freeze this curry?

Yes and it will freeze well for up to 3 months. The recipe calls for coconut milk which doesn't freeze well on its own but I have frozen it as part of this sauce and the sauce was still very good.

If you would rather, you could freeze the curry before adding the coconut milk. Just let it come to room temperature and freeze it in an air tight container.

Then let it defrost completely and heat it up on your stove over a medium heat. You can then add the coconut milk and heat it through in the sauce before serving.

Step by step photographs.

Ingredients for the curry. — Get all your ingredients together before you start cooking. Check out all that ground coriander!

Meltng coconut oil in a clay pot. — If using coconut oil, melt it over a medium high heat in a large pan. A clay pot is best if you have one.

Adding the curry leaves to the hot coconut oil. — Once the oil is hot and bubbly, stir in the curry leaves and let them infuse into the oil.

Adding and then frying onions in the pot. — Stir in the chopped onions and add a pinch of salt. Fry for about 7 minutes or until soft and starting to brown some.

Adding the chopped garlic, ginger and chillies to the onion mixture in the pot. — Stir in the chopped garlic, ginger and chillies and fry for another minute.

Stirring the ground spices into the onion mixture in the pot. — Add the ground spices and stir them in well to combine.

Adding the meat and a little water to the pot. — Add a couple of tablespoons of water so that the spices don't burn and then add the meat.

Stirring the meat into the base onion and spice mixture. — Stir the meat well for a few minutes to brown it some and completely coat with the spices and onion mixture.

Adding the chopped tomatoes and just enough water to cover the meat to simmer and cook. — Add the chopped tomatoes and just enough water to cover the meat. Bring to a simmer.

Showing how much water to add to the meat in the pot. — You only need to just cover the meat. It should not be drowning in liquid!

Covering the pan to simmer the meat for about 40 minutes or until tender. — Cover the pan and simmer the meat over a medium heat for 40 minutes or until tender.

The curry after cooking covered for 40 minutes. — After 40 minutes of simmering, the meat should be tender. There will still be a lot of sauce. Simmer it down, uncovered to thicken.

Adding the coconut milk to the curry. — Once the sauce has thickened to your liking, stir in the coconut milk and continue simmering to thicken again. Season with salt to taste.

The finished Keralan lamb curry in a pot at the table. — Serve hot with lime wedges. You can squeeze in lime juice to taste at the table.

Keralan lamb curry served on a plate at the table. — Enjoy!

If you like this Keralan lamb curry, try some of these too!

Railway lamb curry
Chicken lababdar
Chicken Karahi
Homemade poppadoms
Authentic chicken biryani
Beef haleem
Chicken haleem
Beef biryani

Have you tried this Keralan lamb curry recipe?

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Yield: 6