Guru's Lamb Curry

Mirj's Note:

Created for the Spring 2003 Ready Steady Cook contest, this curry was inspired by the movie The Guru, but not for any reason in particular.

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 large onion , peeled and coarsely chopped
• 3 large carrots , peeled and julienned
• 1 (16 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 medium eggplant , peeled and cubed
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• salt and pepper
• ½ cup roasted peanuts

Directions:

1. Brown the lamb in the oil.
2. Add the onion, carrots, crushed tomatoes and eggplant.
3. Stir-fry until the eggplant is tender and the onion is golden.
4. Add the cayenne pepper, curry powder, brown sugar and salt and pepper.
5. Mix well to combine.
6. If necessary, add a little water to get it to the consistency that you like.
7. Just before serving, toss in the roasted peanuts and mix.
8. Serve over basmati rice.
9. If making this ahead, don't add the peanuts, and toss them in just before reheatings.
10. There's nothing as unappetizing and un-Gurulike as soggy peanuts.

Reviews

[Sue Lau]

This dish was easy to prepare. The seasoning in this was good, except that it was too sweet. I found that the flavor of the carrots overwhelmed the eggplants- I didn't care for that combination. It seems like it could be a nice Middle Eastern dish for someone, very colorful too, just not my cup of tea. Sorry!

[Derf]

Sorry, I ran into quite a bit of confusion with the instructions in this recipe. First of all there are no cooking times indicated. Second, having not used eggplant very often, I was not sure how to do it, you did say peel and cube it but is it supposed to have all those black and tan seeds in it? I cut them out and only cubed and used the white part. Third, found it difficult to "stir fry" the onion, carrots and eggplant with a can of crushed tomatoes included, I felt the tomatoes should have been added after the other veggies had been stir fried. You cannot get the onions "golden" with the tomatoes in at the same time. This was very disapointing and I'm feeling like I should not have selected this recipe to try and review, but I thought it would be something different. As for the taste, there was a little bite but the crushed tomatoes overpowered everything. They have a very strong/concentrated tomato flavour and in the end I had to add too much water to make the dish palatable. Sorry I would not make this again, the instructions are way too vague, and the taste not worth the effort.