Mung Bean with Lamb

Introduction

Well, it's been a little while since I posted a recipe, however when my lovely wife returned from a bargain hunt shop with 1.5kg of mung beans, I knew a daal was imminent.
I've had mung beans before but I've always just thrown them in to a curry as an afterthought. This time, I wanted to make them the star of the show.
With a little bit of reading through my cooking library, my previous recipes & some additional internet searching with consideration to what I had in cupboard, fridge & freezer, I've come up with this recipe.
As always, this is made child friendly and with leftovers very much in mind. I'm growing some spicy chillies in the garden so simply garnished my bowl with them, however if allowed, I'd have put them in with the onions at the start.

Ingredients

Base

Onion
I used 2 small ones, chopped
2 stalks celery
2 medium carrots
both diced
4 cloves garlic
roughly chopped
Courgette
a small farm just on the edge of our estate grows small amounts of veg. Some of the courgettes were huge




Spices

2 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp fennel seeds
2-3 cloves




1 tbsp ground ginger
my Madur Jaffrey book says that ground & fresh ginger should be treated as completely different spices. I wanted to add fresh ginger to the base but didn't have any in. I'd be interested to see how different this would be using fresh ginger instead
1 tbsp paprika
2 tsp turmeric
I would have thought this a lot of turmeric, but all the daal recipes I looked at use this much
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chilli
4-5 peppercorns
broken with pestle & mortar
2 tsp salt
3 bay leaves




Main

1 kg lamb shoulder
Mung beans
I used just under 4 espresso cups for this
1 pint stock
you will also need about another pint of water
Tin chopped tomatoes

Salad

Lettuce
Cucumber
Tomato
Half Red/Yellow pepper
all diced
Celery leaves
Fresh Coriander
roughly chopped
Cumin seeds
Kalonji
just a sprinkle of each

To finish

Fresh coriander
Lemon juice
Half red/yellow pepper


Method

Heat some nut oil in a large pan. Add the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds & cloves. Stir fry for about a minute or until the seeds start to pop. Add the base ingredients and fry until soft and the onion is translucent. This should take about 6-8 mins. If it is burning, turn the heat down & keep stirring.




Next, mix in the rest of the spices and half the salt. When it is well mixed and looks dry, add about 1 pint of hot stock. Mix well & bring to boil.
Now put the lamb shoulder in whole and add the toms & more water until the lamb is almost covered. Bring to boil.








Reduce the heat & simmer for about 3 hours. The meat should be falling off the bone and the oil should rise to the top.
Drain the meat over the pan to keep all the juices, until cool enough to handle.




Now shred the meat and put in a bowl or korai. You will need to add some of the liquid to ensure the meat doesn't get to dry.








Now add the mung beans to the pan and simmer until thick for about two hours, stirring occasionally to ensure it doesn't stick.




When thick, put in bowl or korai to serve. Garnish with finely sliced peppers, coriander leaves, the remaining salt & freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Serve with a simple salad: mix lettuce, chopped tomatoes, cucumber and diced pepper with more coriander leaves, celery leaves, cumin seeds & kalonji. Make a dressing using the mashed centre of cucumber, olive oil, lemon juice & a pinch of ground coriander.
Enjoy x