Ingredients

Method

Finely chop the onions. Heat the oil until very hot then put in the whole cardamom, cloves, bay leaf and cinnamon. As soon as the spices sizzle and change colour, add the onions. Fry for about 25-30 minutes until they turn darkest brown evenly.

While the onions fry, make a smooth paste of the garlic, ginger and green chillies. Add this to the onions when they are sufficiently browned. Fry until the garlic paste loses its raw smell.

Turn up the heat and add the meat and salt with the ground spices, cumin, coriander, turmeric, paprika and chilli powder, giving it all a good stir, frying in the meat and spices well.

Now add the chopped tomatoes, fry thoroughly into the meat then turn down the heat to very low, then cover and simmer until the meat is fork tender and the sauce thick, 2 hours minimum for lamb and at least 3 hours for beef. If you would like a bit more sauce add a bit of hot water to the sauce near the end of cooking but check your seasoning if you do so. You could fish out the whole spices at the end of cooking if you object to them but they add flavour, just push them to the side of your plate as you eat.

Finally, stir in the last tomato, garam masala and sprinkle with fresh coriander.

This goes well with rice or any Indian bread, you could also serve salad or a vegetable dish on the side.

Reheat, covered in a microwave or a hot oven until piping hot.