This Gosht Dopiaza is one of my favourite recipes for a busy weeknight.
I relied on it heavily back when I was working full-time. It's such an easy but hearty dinner - perfect after a busy day.
It requires a lot of onions, but no frying or sautéing of them. This is, for lack of better words, a 'dump-and-go' recipe.
You throw all the ingredients into a pot, put the lid on and allow everything to simmer away for 1.5hrs, allowing you the time to do all those important things you need to do. The recipe is finished when, after 1.5hr, you take off the lid and all all the water to dry out, leaving you with a thick gravy made entirely of onions and tender, juicy lamb infused with garlic and plenty of aromatic spices.
There is very little to complain about with this Gosht Dopiaza.
This recipe was inspired by Rick Stein's Lamb Dopiaza from his book 'Rick Stein's India', with a few adaptions. This is a definite favourite with the family, even on a weekend, and I'm very certain you'll enjoy this too.
What is a Gosht Dopiaza curry?
'Gosht' means meat in Urdu/Hindi - more typically it's used to mean red meat such as lamb, beef, mutton etc.
'Dopiaza' literally means two (do) onions (piaz). There is debate in the culinary world as to what this actually means for the curry. 2 onions? 2 types of onions? Adding the onions in 2 stages?
My chicken dopiaza curry uses onions in two stages. This recipe doesn't actually follow any of these - it's just a beautifully onion-y lamb curry inspired by Rick Stein that uses A LOT of onions. It doesn't use tomato or yogurt, the base is made entirely from onions.
I kept the name Lamb Dopiaza in light of the recipe it was inspired from - whether this name is authentic is definitely up for debate... I will err on the side of saying it's OK 😉
A few Lamb Dopiaza tips:
- Red onions taste best in this - they are sweeter and have a more complex, caramelised flavour
- If you don't have all the whole spices, it's OK to omit one or two of them. The proper flavour is when they're all used, but don't fret if you can't
- If you'd like to substitute chicken in this recipe, it's a little bit complex and I don't think I would recommend it because it would no longer be an 'easy' recipe. The onions need the full 2+ hours to simmer, which is perfect for red meat but not so good for chicken. If you must use chicken, I'd advise simmering the onions and spices for 2 hours without the chicken, then frying the chicken separately in a pan till golden before adding the chicken + oil into the onions and cooking till the mixture has dried out.
- You can sub beef in this without changing the recipe. For mutton, I'd advise adding an extra cup of water and cooking this for between 3-4hrs
- Feel free to chop these onions in a food processor - it won't ruin the texture of the curry. You're equally free to use frozen onions! Yay to making an easy recipe even easier!
How do you serve Lamb Dopiaza?
Lamb Dopiaza goes wonderfully with naan, roti or rice. It's a very easy to serve curry, not fussy at all!
Ideally, it would go well with a simple green salad too.
Enjoy, with love xox
📋 Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lb (700 g) lamb bone in
- 5 (750 g) large onions sliced
- 12 cloves garlic minced or chopped
- 2 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
- 2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 0.5 teaspoon cloves
- 1 medium sized stick cinnamon
- 5 dried red chillis
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- ¼ cup (60 ml) oil or ghee
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 0.5 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 black cardamoms
- 3 green cardamoms
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to a pot with 0.5 cups water, Put the lid on, turn the heat to low and allow everything to simmer away for 1.5hrs, stirring once or twice in between.
- Take off the lid, turn the heat to high and saute ('bhun') off all the excess water till you are happy with the consistency of the onion gravy. All the onions should have broken down and become part of a thick sauce, almost like a masala
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Javed Hasnain
Very good.
Sam
Easy to make, loved the taste….
Naveen Sohail
I'm so intrigued by this one, I'll have to try .
Stephen
Do you need to ground down the whole spices for this dish?
Abida
Looks delicious as usual! And hang in there, first year is always the hardest! But would definitely suggest to get ahead of the game as much as possible in terms of planning. Try to do a half term in advance or at least a couple of weeks - it takes so much stress off! And also similarly, try as best as you can to mark at work, even during break. Literally one of the worst feelings is having to bring loads of marking home and knowing you have all those books/assessments waiting for you!
Having moved away from London a couple of months ago, I will tell you, you do miss the hustle and bustle. But there are always pros and cons of all places!
Fatima
Thank you Abida for your very encouraging words and advice! I have made a short term plan up till February where I know (mostly) what I'll be teaching and that's helped immensely! Teaching is just an exhausting career in general, there's two no ways around it! Hugs
imaginarybee
You are so lucky to truly enjoy cooking! By the time I get home after work, I am way too exhausted and cringe at the idea of having to cook. I think I'll give this recipe a try though. It seems easy!
Fatima
Hope you give it a go! It's very easy 🙂