Kitchen Exile

Goat bhuna

This is one of my favourite curry house dishes typically made with lamb but I've made an exception for Goatober, the goat meat works really well with this dish. While Bhuna may be the curry house name of the dish, it is actually the name of the cooking technique. It is a method of frying the whole spices in oil to bring out the flavour and then adding the meat, letting it cook in its own juices. It is a drier curry in comparison to masala style that most of you are familiar with.

I'd like to thank Monique van den Broek aka Mevrouw de Bok for the meat for my goat recipes this month. Monique is involved with Boeren van Nederlands and like myself is keen to promote goat meat here in the Netherlands. She travels the Netherlands with her goat Thijs de Ambassadeur speaking at events. 

Whole spices
1 black cardamon pod
3 green cardamon pods
4 cloves
1 blade of mace
1 bay leaf

Ground spices
10g cumin
5g coriander
5g turmeric
10g mild chilli powder
10g garam masala

3 large onions peeled and chopped
4 cloves of garlic grated
30g ginger grated
3 tomatoes roughly chopped
2 - 4 green chillies sliced (or more if you like it really hot)
30ml oil or ghee for cooking
1kg goat shoulder or leg, diced into 1 inch cubes
Salt and pepper to taste
Coriander leaves for garnish

First fry off the whole spices in the oil on a medium heat for 5 minutes to release the aromatics
Add the onions and lower the heat, cook the onions until soft and glossy, this takes about 10-15 minutes
Next add the coriander, cumin, chilli powder, turmeric, garlic, chillies and ginger and stir through, cook for a further 5 minutes
Add the goat and tomatoes, place a lid on the pan, lower the heat and cook for 3 hours stirring every so often to ensure it doesn't burn on the bottom
You can also cook this in the oven (130c fan, 140c normal) or BBQ (150c indirect).  
If the mixture is getting too dry, just add a small amount of water
Half an hour before the end of the cooking time add the garam masala and stir through
You need the meat to be tender but not falling apart, so do check the meat at regular intervals after 2 hours of cooking to see if it is starting to give
When finished, season with the salt and pepper
I like to serve this with steamed rice and chapatis