Lamb Curry

This dish whilst not wholly my own is an amalgam of various lamb curry recipies I have tried over the years, toasting and grinding the spices is key and if you are not prepared to do this then don't bother.
The result is amazing and well worth the effort, all other curries will pale into insignificance.

ingredients

• 2 tsp coriander seeds (to toast)
• 2 tsp cumin seeds (to toast)
• 4 cardamom pods, split and seeds removed (to toast)
• 1 clove (to toast)
• 2 tbsp rape seed oil
• 6 med onions (finely sliced)
• 2 lamb shoulders (boned)
• 6 large garlic cloves (finely grated)
• 1 tbsp ginger (finely grated)
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• finely chopped chilli to suit your taste, seeds removed
• 1/2 tsp salt
• double cream to suit, i use about 250 ml
• 350 ml fresh chicken stock
• fresh coriander

 Method

Find the heaviest casserole dish you have, add 1 tbsp oil and gently heat, add the onions, stir to coat with the oil and put the lid on.

At this point you can remove the fat from the lamb and cube the meat,  take a large heavy bottomed frying pan add the remaining oil and heat, on a high heat brown / caramelise the lamb in batches and set aside.

Gently toast the spices in a small frying pan, they should darken slightly and begin release their aroma, grind to a powder stage in a pestle and mortar.
 
By now the onions should be have reached an "onion jam" state, add in the lamb.

Remove the coriander leaves from the stalks, finely chop the stalks and add to the onions along with the ground spices, garlic, ginger, turmeric, salt and chilli, stir well.

Take a small amount of the chicken stock and de-glaze the pan in which you browned the lamb, add this along with the rest of the stock to the casserole, add the cream and stir.

Place a sheet of foil on top of the casserole and put the lid on,place in a pre heated oven (140C/gas mk 2) leave for one and a half to two hours, remove from the oven and stir in the finely chopped coriander leaves, return the dish to the now switched off but still hot oven and leave for ten minutes.

Serve with rice of your choice.

What did i want to be?

What did i want to be when i was young.

Not the normal train driver, airline pilot, racing car driver for me.
None of these occupations were  good enough, i wanted to be .......a bloody joiner, a fine trade, but hardly the stuff of childhood dreams.... did i lack imagination, no.... i don't think i so.

Whilst out playing, i would find various bits of wood lying around the large estate on which we lived, anything would do, bits of 3" x 2", bits of ply etc.
All of which would would be transported to my back garden.

my dad wasn't really up on DIY, one of his few attempts was to replace the door handles to the back kitchen door, he stood there proud of what he had achieved, until someone tried open the kitchen door, yes...you had to lift the handles up !

I digress... in my imagination the bits of wood i had found could be anything i wanted them to be, a new cart, a new den, even a fine piece of furniture, (if i took my time)
This was not my mum and dad's point of view, "get rid of that shite out of the back would come the call,

If i had my way it would have looked like Steptoe's yard.

Tools and materials for my work were pretty thin on the ground, i can even remember straightening out second hand nails, hold on a hard surface with the bent bit looking up and hit with hammer, many a sore thumb!
As i have already said Dad didn't do DIY and as a consequence we had a hammer and a couple of screwdrivers a pair of wire cutters, which i seem to remember were very good! and a saw (a large blade from an industrial reciprocating saw) with some tape wrapped around one end to stop the teeth cutting your hand.
Still a bad workman always blames his tools, so i won't go down that road.

I can't say i ever made anything worthwhile, things just never seemed to turn out how i had imagined.


But next time they would.

apprentice vet hits his first snag.

Some things you must know before we get started,

I collected "stuff" magnets, badges, electric motors, magnifying glasses etc. all stored in my treasure chest (the bottom drawer of a chipboard chest of drawers).

We had a Cat.

I was aged ~10 yr s.

We lived in a council house and had (i am sure) no money.

The Cat had caught a mouse and brought it into the house, i having a liking for all animals, large and small,  somehow managed to seperate the cat from the now half dead mouse and took it upstairs, to the room i shared with my elder brother.
once upstairs my primary mission was to save the mouse's life, i immediately went to my treasure chest to see if i had anything that might be useful.
my eyes immediately fell upon the aquarium heater i had recently found.... hastily i removed the blue nylon sheet from my bed, wrapped the mouse in said sheet and laid it on the top of the now plugged in aquarium heater, i then left the room, i can only think in my adult mind, it was to give the mouse some peace and quiet, in order to recuperate.
Being the impatient type i returned a short time later expecting to find a rejuvenated mouse and a nice warm sheet, this was not to be!
In fact, what i found was to say in the least heartbreaking my surgery/bedroom was now full of smoke... even at that age i had the wherewithal to unplug the heater open the window and retire to safety for half an hour. 
How had my good intentions come to this! how would i explain the melted sheets to my mum?
I buried the mouse "with full honours and a matchstick crucifix in my "little garden" (a patch i might add which was about 6' x2') and hid the sheet in the top most back space of the wardrobe.

That night i said nothing and slept without a sheet...

next day my mum who had a nose for such wrongdoings asked where my bedsheet was, i don't know i said, i think Michael (elder bro) has had it.
She new i was lying and went on a "rummage"
With the evidence overwhelming i had to admit my wrongdoings.
i seem to remember she took it very well, and never told my dad.  

I still feel guilty about this today not so much for the mouse, but for the money i cost my mum in new sheets, and of course the lying.

The pointless coincidence.

Many years ago whilst serving as an Apprentice in the local shipyard i became good friends with a fellow Apprentice named Ian Smith. After finishing our term as apprentices we went to work at the Naval Base in Plymouth, we shared a house and done all the usual "lad" stuff, he was without doubt my best mate.
After not seeing or speaking to Ian for some twenty years i was sitting at the end of the bar in my local, the phone was fixed to wall next to me, it rang, the land lord was busy and he motioned to me to answer.
Hello imperial tavern i answered.
The voice on the other end of the line said, is that you mark are you running a pub these days, no i said I'm on the only side of the bar i ever want to be, who is that ...? it's Ian, Ian Smith came the reply.
Now somewhat confused i asked, how did you know i would be here and where did you get the number?
I bumped into Neil (a mutual friend and colleague) and he passed your number onto me he replied.
But I'm not at home, I'm in the pub, what number did he give you?
4561 came the reply.
But my number is 4516 i answered.
I tried to explain to him that he had by some strange coincidence rang my local pub as i happened to be at the bar.
He refused to believe me and accused me of employing a strange avoidance technique and promptly hung up the phone. 
I have not heard from or seen him since.