The Best Curry House Style Lamb Achari ever! BIR Lamb Curry with Pickling Spices

Video Description

If you love bold, punchy curries that taste exactly like they came from your favourite British Indian restaurant, then you are going to absolutely love this one. Today I’m showing you how to make a proper British Indian Restaurant style lamb achari — a curry that’s packed with huge flavour, a gentle heat and that unmistakable tangy kick that makes it stand out from the crowd. Now, “achari” comes from the word achar, which means pickle. But don’t worry — there are no chunks of pickled onions floating around in your sauce! What it refers to is the incredible blend of spices traditionally used to make Indian pickles: mustard seeds, fennel seeds, nigella seeds, cumin and fenugreek. When these are fried in hot oil, they release an aroma that’s absolutely mouth-watering — sharp, savoury, slightly sour and deeply aromatic all at once. In curry house cooking, lamb achari is one of those dishes that people often discover by accident and then can’t stop ordering. It’s different from your usual madras or jalfrezi. The sauce is rich but not heavy, tangy but not overly sour, spicy but not overwhelming. It has a brightness to it that cuts through the richness of the lamb and keeps every bite exciting. And speaking of the lamb — when cooked properly in that classic BIR style, it becomes beautifully tender while still holding its shape. The meat soaks up all those incredible pickling spices, the garlicky base sauce and that signature curry house finish that makes you think, “How on earth do they get it to taste like this?” The good news is, it’s not magic. It’s technique. Once you understand how curry houses build flavour — frying the spices correctly, layering ingredients, and finishing the sauce at high heat — you can produce restaurant-quality results in your own kitchen. This recipe shows you exactly how to do it. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 00:40 Infusing whole spices into oil 01:13 Fryng off thinly sliced onion 02:18 Stirring in chopped chillies 02:41 Adding garlic and ginger paste 02:55 In goes passata and base sauce 03:38 Adding the meat 05:06 Stirring in the mango chutney and lime pickle 06:05 Adding yoghurt to thicken the sauce 06:59 Finishing the curry off 08:10 Trying the curry INGREDIENTS 3 tbsp rapeseed (canola) oil or vegetable oil 2 tsp panch poran 2 Kashmiri dried red chillies ½ onion, thinly sliced into rings 1 tbsp garlic and ginger paste 2 bird’s eye chillies, finely chopped 70ml (1/4 cup) passata 1 tbsp mixed powder or curry powder 1 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder 300ml (1 ¼ cups) heated base curry sauce 400g pre-cooked lamb 1 tbsp lime pickle or ½ tbsp each of lime pickle and smooth mango chutney 2 tbsp plain yoghurt ½ tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi) ½ tsp garam masala Salt, to taste Juice of 1 lemon 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves, to garnish MY BOOKS The Curry Guy https://amzn.to/3eurWYE​ The Curry Guy Easy https://amzn.to/2JI5lNb​ The Curry Guy Veggie https://amzn.to/369jfz5​ The Curry Guy Light https://amzn.to/38eECSk​ The Curry Guy Bible https://amzn.to/3mSSANV​ The Curry Guy Thai https://amzn.to/3vvPhBy​ The Curry Guy BBQ https://amzn.to/4abqn0K The Curry Guy One Pot https://amzn.to/4aQkd6q The Curry Guy Chicken https://amzn.to/3MH2B2P The Curry Guy Air Fryer https://amzn.to/3XRdu4F The Curry Guy Slow Cooker https://amzn.to/4pLPagY I have over 1000 tried and tested recipes on my blog. https://www.greatcurryrecipes.net​. You will find this recipe on my blog with step by step photos too, here https://greatcurryrecipes.net/2017/04/28/lamb-achari/