Serves 4
This makes a very tasty way to use the last of a roast lamb. There’s been lots of taming and sanitising before I dared to publish a recipe. The original ‘sha aloo jhol’, it’s proper name, isn’t for the faint-hearted. High in the Himalayas, away from the tourist trails, where the trees peter out, people raise ‘changara’, a pungent semi-wild goat with curly horns. When a changara is killed for meat, the haunches are hung out to ripen and air dry. Their rancid perfume signposts people’s presence long before you see a homestead. Small pieces of meat are sliced from the haunch and used to flavour an otherwise bland diet of boiled food, remarkably, rancid goat is delicious. I had to find a palatable way to share the spirit of this dish.
Ingredients
- Cooked lamb bones from a roast with any bits of meat left on them
- 200 grams | 7 oz cooked brown chickpeas
- 1 ½ tablespoons finely grated garlic
- 1 ½ tablespoons finely grated ginger
- 1 litre | 2 pints approx. water
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground chilli (optional)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 medium onion peeled and sliced lengthways
- 300 grams | 10 oz waxy potatoes, peeled and roughly cut into 2cm pieces
- 500 ml | 1 pint leftover gravy, add extra water if the gravy isn’t enough
- 40 ml | 1 ½ fl oz vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons whole cumin
- 2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 3 spring onions, sliced
- Small bunch chives, cut into 2cm lengths
Method
Rinse and place the chickpeas into a large heavy bottomed pan with lamb bones, garlic, ginger and enough water to just cover them (approx. 1 litre). Place the lid on the pan and bring it to the boil, boil vigorously for 10 to 15 minutes then turn the heat down to a rolling boil and cook until the chickpeas are soft enough to crush with a fork. Brown chickpeas will keep a bit of bite when they’re cooked.
Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli, salt, onion, potatoes, and gravy or water. Bring everything back to the boil until the potatoes are cooked. Remove the bones from the stew and pull any meat and marrow bone from them using a fork, return the meat and marrow to the stew and discard the bones.
Heat the oil in a small frying pan until it’s very hot, add the cumin seeds and fry until they brown and are popping. Add the tomato, stir it well and fry until the tomato has softened then add the chives. Stir the chives through the tomatoes and pour the mixture straight into the stew. It will sizzle and splutter.
Stir and check for seasoning before serving.
If you’re using dried chickpeas soak them for 24 hrs changing the water after 12hrs, if time is short then soak them at least overnight.