Lamb Lollipops, Curry Sauce, Rice & Peas

Hello there, today I come to you with a very unusual dish for me, as I have never in my life as a human being in need of food come across something like this.

I searched high and low for these damn lamb lollipops, on every market, every supermarket, asked acquaintances in the culinary business etc., and finally found them in "Metro", a supermarket where only licensed trades can buy, mostly for large quantities - goods wholesale. 

Two packages of lamb lollipops at cca. 600g each came 200kn or 25€ or 35$ or 20£, which is absolutely ridiculous.

I hope this costs less in a civilized country (kidding), but I went for it anyways, as my mom was absolutely dying for it ever since she first opened the cookbook.

So congratulations mom, you better have enjoyed the taste of 200kn!

This is what I came up with:

Firstly I want to say this was a long and hard process, partly because I have a small kitchen, partly because I didn't rehearse any of it, and partly because I had to make almost double.

I cannot believe Jamie made 8 lamb cutlets for 4 people?! Anyways, I had to double the rice too, and make my own Korma paste.

I went ahead by de-freezing the meat and the separating into the amount I decided per person (around 6 I think). I then also took out my frozen peas and covered the red lentils in boiling water to re-hydrate. 

I then put my plain rice to cook with no more and no less than 8 cloves of garlic, since that takes the longest, and set out to make the Korma paste. 

Now, Jamie bought it pre-packaged, Croatia doesn't have it, but luckily I found a recipe on his site with that specific paste, and a couple other similar ones: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/recipe/easy-homemade-curry-pastes

The instructions are rather vague, but the ingredient list is sufficient so I made my way with that, and the fact that "dry ingredients with dry, then add the wet into the dry". 

I didn't have the groundnut oil, instead of which I used olive oil and I didn't have desiccated coconut, so I just skipped that altogether. I also added a bit more garam masala and cayenne pepper because I just couldn't not add more. That's how much I love it.

I added all that in my processor, first the spices to break down the chunkier ones until they were all rather powdery, and then the wet ingredients to bind it all together. 

I set that aside and drained my rice, and set somewhere to keep warm. 

I then turned to my meat, rubbing the lamb with salt, pepper, and a whole lot of garam masala, then put in two rounds into a frying pan with one tablespoon of oil until very well done, as I like my meat definitely dead. That took rather a long time, around 10 minutes all together as I fried it on a fairly low heat as I wanted to control the way it cooked. 

While one side or the other was frying, I heated another pan and placed all my Korma sauce and all my coconut milk to boil, and then simmer for five minutes. 

I then decided it was time to stir my peas and lentils into the rice and set aside.

Now here came the tricky part - the glazing of the lamb.

I cooked it in two rounds, so one was already done, but I wanted it that way because I decided to coat only one batch in the honey and balsamic vinegar. I decided to roast the jarred and pre-cut peppers, ginger, spring onions and chili after the lamb, as it all just wouldn't fit at once.

However I did roast it in the pan I took the lamb out of because I needed just a coat of some sort of sauce over it, to add some flavor.

Once that was hot enough, I arranged it all as Jamie suggests, and voilà! 

P.S., I didn't even bother with the poppadoms as a) I had rice as a carb, b) you can't buy them done in Croatia and c), I didn't want to bother with making them. 

If you want to seem really fancy and well introduced in the Art of Cooking, especially Middle Eastern meals, this is the recipe to go for. If you rehearse several times in a country where this meat doesn't cost as much as pure gold, I say go for it. You won't regret it any time, especially the Korma paste which adds such an unusual tinge to the meal.
To achieve this recipe, do as follows:

Serves 4, 632 calories

Ingredients out* Kettle boiled* Medium lidded pan, high heat * Two large non-stick frying pans, medium-high heat*

Ingredients

Rice&peas
1 mug (300g) of 10-minute wholegrain or basmati rice
8 cloves
40g dried red split lentils
300g podded raw or garden peas

Lamb
8 large lamb cutlets on the bone, trimmed of fat
1 tbsp garam masala
olive oil
4 spring onions
1 fresh red chili 
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
4 jarred red peppers
1 heaped tsp runny honey
balsamic vinegar
3 sprigs of fresh coriander

Curry sauce
2 tbsp Patak's korma paste
1 x 400g tin of light coconut milk
1 lemon

Garnishes
2 uncooked poppadoms
fat-free natural yoghurt

Start cooking

Put 1 mug of rice and 2 mugs of boiling water into the medium pan with a pinch of salt and the cloves, then put the lid on, stirring occasionally. Rub the lamb with salt, pepper and the garam masala, bash and flatten them with your fist, then put into one of the hot frying pans with 1 tablespoon of oil, turning when gnarly and golden brown.

Put the korma paste and coconut milk into the other frying pan with the juice of 1/2 a lemon, stir together, bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes, then turn the heat off. Mix the lentils into the rice. Trim and slice the spring onions, chili, peeled ginger and peppers, then toss in with the lamb. Stir the peas into the rice and lentils.

Pour half the curry sauce into a bowl (pop the rest in the fridge to use another day). Break up the uncooked poppadoms and pop in the microwave (800W) for a minute or two to puff up. At the last minute, toss the lamb with the honey and a splash of balsamic. Serve the lamb scattered with coriander leaves and scrunched-up poppadoms, with the rice and peas, yoghurt and lemon wedges on the side. 

Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version is written above. 

Bon Appétit!