Punjabi Chha Gosht Spiced Yogurt Lamb Doaba

Ingredients

• 700 g lamb — bone-in pieces
• For marinating:
• 2 cups thick yogurt, 2 tbsp ginger paste, 2 tbsp garlic paste
• 2 tsp red chilli powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp garam masala, salt
• For cooking:
• 3 tbsp ghee
• 4 black cardamom, 4 green cardamom, 6 cloves, 2 bay leaf, 1 inch cinnamon
• 2 onions — finely sliced
• 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• salt, 1 tsp garam masala for finishing
• coriander and ginger julienne

Method

1. Marinate lamb in yogurt: Combine lamb with all marinade ingredients including the full 2 cups yogurt. Marinate 4 hours or overnight.
2. Heat ghee: Heat 3 tbsp ghee on medium-high. Add all whole spices — both cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon. Bloom 20 seconds.
3. Cook onions until golden: Add sliced onions. Cook 12 minutes until golden.
4. Add ginger-garlic paste: Cook 2 minutes.
5. Add the marinated lamb with all yogurt: Add the lamb with the entire yogurt marinade. The quantity of yogurt seems large — this is intentional.
6. Cook on high heat initially: Cook on medium-high stirring every 3 minutes for 15 minutes as the yogurt reduces rapidly. The mixture will look curdled initially — keep stirring.
7. Continue reducing: The yogurt will eventually smooth out and begin to coat the lamb as it reduces. Keep stirring every 5 minutes.
8. After 20 minutes add 1 cup water: The yogurt will have reduced considerably. Add 1 cup water and salt. Cover.
9. Slow cook: Reduce to medium-low. Cook 45 to 50 minutes until lamb is completely tender.
10. Finish: Uncover. Reduce slightly if gravy is too thin. Add garam masala. Garnish with coriander and ginger. The chha gosht should have a thick, slightly grainy yogurt-based gravy.
11. Note: Chha Gosht (chha = yogurt in some Punjabi dialects, gosht = meat) is the Doaba style of cooking meat in a large quantity of yogurt — the Doaba belt between the Beas and Sutlej rivers is a major dairy-farming region where yogurt is made daily from local buffalo milk. The preparation uses proportionally more yogurt than a standard curry — producing a distinctive gravy that has a characteristic slight graininess from the cooked and reduced yogurt.