Roast lamb rumps with Rajasthani corn sauce
This is a roast lamb dinner with a spicy twist, designed to make any Sunday that little bit special.
Ingredients
For the marinade
- 4 cloves
- 1cm/½in piece cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp cumin seeds, lightly toasted
- 1 tbsp black stone flower
- 2 tbsp plain yoghurt
- 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- pinch salt
- ½ tsp sugar
For the sauce
- 70ml/2½fl oz ghee or clarified butter
- 6 cloves
- 2 large black cardamom pods
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 2–3 green chillies, stalks removed and slit lengthways
- 1 x 200g/7oz tin sweetcorn, drained
- 4 tbsp plain yoghurt
- 150ml/5fl oz lamb stock or boiling water
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú fresh coriander, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 lemon, juice only
- freshly ground black pepper
For the roast lamb rumps
- 4 x 100–150g/3½–5½oz lamb rumps, surface fat trimmed off
- ½ tsp salt
- 1½ tbsp corn or vegetable oil, plus extra for cooking
- 1 tsp chilli powder
To serve
- wilted greens
Method
To make the marinade, dry roast the cloves, cinnamon, cumin and black stone flower in a hot pan for about 30 seconds, to release their aromas. Pound using a pestle and mortar and mix with the yoghurt, chilli powder, ginger garlic paste, salt, and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
To make the sauce, heat the ghee in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add the cloves, black cardamom seeds and bay leaf. When they start to crackle, add the onions and cook over a medium heat.
Add the turmeric and salt and fry briskly for a minute, taking care the turmeric doesn't start to burn. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a further couple of minutes.
As soon as the fat starts to separate from the mixture, add the green chillies, three quarters of the sweetcorn and the yoghurt. Cook, stirring continually, over a low heat for around 15–20 minutes until the corn has broken down and the sauce starts to become very thick.
Add the lamb stock. Bring back to the boil, add the coriander and the remaining sweetcorn and reduce to a medium heat. Simmer for a further 10 minutes. Add the garam masala, season with salt and pepper and finish with a squeeze of lemon juice.
Meanwhile, to cook the lamb, preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/Gas 3. Mix together the salt, oil and chilli powder and rub all over the meat. Heat a drizzle of oil in a heavy pan and sear the rumps over a medium heat for 2–3 minutes. Flip them and cook another 2 minutes. Spread the reserved marinade all over the seared lamb and roast for 6–7 minutes. Leave to rest for 3–4 minutes before slicing evenly and serving with the sauce and the wilted greens.
