Rogan literally means 'meat' and josh means 'fat' and traditionally the fatty meat off the bone (lamb) was used for making Rogan Josh, being slow cooked in its own fat. The best chilli to use for this is the Kashmiri chilli - but without being able to get any of those, I have used bird eyes!
If you want to be more traditional to the original recipe, then use lamb (Rogan Josh is traditionally made with lamb), either stewing lamb or chops (about 700g) rather than the chicken. Simply remove the garlic from the instructions below and then use them at the beginning to prepare the meat. Simply boil the lamb with the garlic in about 6 cups of water for about 20 minutes beforehand. I have used chicken because it's easier and hubster prefers chicken in curries too.
This recipe is a bit of a mix of different traditions of Rogan Josh and has been adapted from one by Carmellia Panjabie.
Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
1 large onion, finely chopped (or about 250g of shallots, I juts had a large Spanish to hand)
some olive oil
2 tsps of mild chilli powder
1 tsp of paprika
4 cloves
4 green cardamons (the recipe called for large black cardamons, but I couldn't get hold of any)(1)
2 bays leaves
1 blade of mace
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp fennel powder (I could only get fennel seeds, so mashed up the seeds with a mortar and pestle)
1 tsp ginger powder
2 small bird eye chillis (2), finely chopped (or crushed dried bird eye chillis, as I used)
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
salt to taste
4 cloves of garlic
three heaped spoons of full fat yoghurt, whisked
Main spice ingredients:
1. Mix the chilli powder and paprika in a small cup and add a touch of water so that it forms a rough paste as you can see below. Set aside.
2. Heat up the oil in a large pan and then add the onions (or shallots). Fry on a medium - low heat for about 10 - 15 minutes until they are soft (don't brown them).
4. Add the cloves, cardamons, bay leaves and mace and fry for another minute.
5. Next, add the coriander, fennel, garlic, ginger, bird eye chillies, turmeric and the chilli paste you made in Stage 1 and stir well. Add a smidge of water (about 2 tbsps) so that nothing sticks to the base of the pan and stir well.
6. After two more minutes, add the chicken to the mix and turn up the heat just a tad to brown them off, this should take about 5 minutes or so. This will take a lot of stirring! Then lower the heat to a simmer and add the yoghurt. Stir well, mixing everything in.
7. Add any salt ot taste, and then add 4 cups of water and simmer.
8. Whilst the Josh is on the hob simmering away, preheat your fat fryer to 190 degrees. Pick out 3 large potatoes, peel and chop into chips of roughly the same size. Put them in the fryer, once it is heated, then fry the home-made chips for about 10-15 minutes, or however long it talkes to get nice crispy ones (or to your tastes, whatever). If they have done and the curry is still simmering away, then preheat the oven with a small oven dish and put the chips to keep warm in there.
9. Once the meat is nice and tender, serve with the chips. As you can see here, I really need to change the fat in my fryer and you shouldn't get all the black bits!
10. Serve with cobra beer. This got the big thumbs up from hubster last night. Don't be tempted to add too many chillies to make it hotter - it is the flavours that make this an excellent curry. If you don't like your curries too hot, then juts add in one bird-eye chilli. Or if you are a complete wuss, then just stick to the curry paste. But I hope you feel inclined to try it out as it is a very nice curry.
Footnotes:
(1) Both the black and green cardamon add to the flavour of a dish. The black cardamon is much bigger than the green one, though (about 6-8 times larger) and is grown in North-east India. The green cardamon, however, and has a little less flavour, so if you manage to get hold of some black ones, then it may add to the flavour of this dish!
(2)The kashmiri chilli (from Kashmir) is best for this dish. I couldn't get hold of some, but I think Iwill. They are quite hot, but so are bird eyes and probably add a similar flavour to the mix. If anyone knows where I can get some Kashmiri chillies though, I would be truly grateful!
The elusive Kashmiri Chilli - but where can I buy some?
