I made this on the weekend, and had leftovers to take to work. After re-heating my lunch box in the office kitchen, it caught a few noses at work.

It’s simple, needs a little prep time, but most of the cooking time is where you leave it alone and spend time outside the kitchen. So, here’s the recipe:

To make the marinade
* 300g of lamb trimmed and cut in cubes. (Cuts from a leg of lamb is perfect, but even a shoulder cut will do).
* 1 clove of garlic – crushed
* 1 small ginger cut into very small bits
* 1.5 – 2 teaspoons of salt
* About 1 teaspoon of turmeric
* 2.5 – 3 teaspoons of garam masala
* 2 teaspoons of ground coriander
* 2 teaspoons of ground cumin
* 3 tablespoons of natural yoghurt (don’t go for the 98% fat free rubbish, get the good stuff)
* 1 teaspoon of vinegar
* Small red chilli – cut finely (optional)

For the cooking part
* 2 onions julienned (sliced into long thin strips)
* 4 small tomatoes de-seeded and diced
* Cumin seeds (I didn’t have this, so I used half a teaspoon of ground cumin powder)
* 2 – 3 bay leaves (optional, but adds to the flavour)
* 1 mug of good quality basmati rice

Let’s start the marinade. Put the lamb and all the marinade ingredients together. Mix the yoghurt well and coat the lamb cubes with the marinade very well. If you need more yoghurt, feel free. But the more yoghurt you add, the less you can taste the spices – so don’t go overboard.

Cover the marinade and put in the fridge. You can do this before hand and let it marinade for a couple of hours – but I didn’t have much time. So I left it in the fridge for about 15 mins while I prepared the rest.

Once you have veg chopped up – bring a non-stick saucepan on high heat (I repeat – non-stick – otherwise be prepared for the washing). Add some oil (vegetable or olive will do). When the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds (or cumin powder) and once you can smell the cumin, add the onions and lower the heat to medium. Stir the onions around for 7 – 10 mins until browned. Then add the chopped tomatoes immediately followed by the lamb and bay leaves. Turn up the heat to high and leave on this high heat for 5 mins while stirring frequently.

After 5 minutes, lower the flame to low and let it simmer. Put a lid on it and let it cook for 20 – 30 mins. Go watch TV.

After 20 mins, check if the lamb is tender and taste to see if you need more seasoning. Don’t be afraid to add more salt as the rice will absorb some of it. Once you’ve found your balance of the seasoning, add in the mug of rice and give it a gentle stir. Add some water to fill just 0.5cm above the entire mixture. Put the heat up to the highest and let the water come to boil. Once you see the water boiling, cover the lid and put the heat down to your low setting. DO NOT TAKE IT OFF the lidfor about 20 mins.

The idea is to leave the steam and flavours covered to cook the rice instead of evaporating the magic of the spices. Go watch TV again or give some attention to your guests.

After 20 mins, take off the lid and there you have it. Give it a few stirs and let it rest for 5 mins so that the rice fluffs up.

While it rests you can make some raita (I make mine with 4 table spoons of yoghurt, quarter finely diced cucumber, 1 tea spoon coriander powder, 1 tea spoon cumin powder, some chopped mint leaves). You can also serve it with plain yoghurt.

This recipe can also be used by replacing the lamb with chicken. Enjoy!