Grilling lamb chops is very easy; make a nice marinade, marinate the meat for a few hours, fire up the grill, place the marinated chops, cook one side, turn once, cook the other side, let it rest for a while and delicious lamb chops are ready to serve!  Making an Indian style lamb chops is much more work, since the whole cooking process is done stovetop, and there are several steps to the process. But the end result is so different from the grilled chops you would find in any restaurant around here, it is totally worth the effort. 

In India, there was no concept of different cuts of meat, at least not where I grew up. The butcher cuts up the whole animal into shapeless pieces, you wouldn’t know by looking at the meat where it came from. Only after coming to the U.S. of A that I learned the difference between various parts of the animal body, and how each cut differ in flavor and tenderness and would require different cooking techniques. Most meat recipes you would find in Indian cookbooks wouldn’t tell you which part of the meat to use, except may be whether to use meat with or without bones. I’ve tried various Indian recipes with the lamb chops and finally settled on one I like for the rib chops.

This particular recipe is based on a mutton recipe from my Kerala cookbook bible - Flavours of the Spice Coast by Mrs. K.M. Mathew.  This colorful book with beautiful mouthwatering pictures accompanying simple traditional Kerala recipes is my most used cookbook.  I’ve learned most of my basic techniques from this book, and given out copies to lots of friends. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn to cook authentic Kerala dishes, just the way our mothers would make them.  (BTW Amazon lists it for ~$75, that is way too overprized, I got it from India for about $25.)

Anyway, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

Method

In a large pan, cook the lamb chops with 1 cup water, cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon stick and salt. When the lamb is half cooked, remove the chops and keep aside. Remove the spices and reserve the stock.

Wipe the pan clean and return to the stove. Heat oil and add the chopped onions and curry leaves. Fry the onions till they start to brown.

Add the ginger paste and garlic paste and fry to a golden color.

Mix red chili powder, black pepper powder and turmeric powder with a little bit of water to make a paste. Add the spice paste to the pan and saute on low heat till the spices are fried well.

Add the drained lamb chops to the pan, and mix well till both sides are coated with the onion and spice mixture. Be very careful while mixing so as not to break the chops. Cook on medium till the meat is browned on both sides.

Add the reserved stock and the lime juice to the pan. Reduce the heat, close the pan and simmer for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, remove the lid, sprinkle the garam masala and cook on high heat till all the water is completely absorbed.

Serve hot.

Notes

The chops will be well coated with gravy. If you are serving this to guests, you might want to wipe the end bones clean with a damp towel.

A yogurt dipping sauce or raitha will nicely offset the heat of this dish.

For a complete meal, make a simple mixed leaves salad with a light dressing, and serve the chops on the salad.

 

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Comments

20 Responses to “Lamb Chops - Indian Style”

  1. Mishmash ! on April 2nd, 2007 1:02 am

    Siggggg..i dont want to say u re cruel but u re making me !! Thats the most glamorous lamb chops I have ever seen :))

    Shn

  2. Reena on April 2nd, 2007 1:42 am

    sig!!! the lamp chops look scrumptious.

  3. Meeta on April 2nd, 2007 6:04 am

    WOW! It’s breakfast time here in Germany but man could I dig into your chops baby! ;-) They look and sound incredible.

  4. sunita's world on April 2nd, 2007 8:21 am

    Sig…those lamb chops look really scrummy…wish I could have some…

  5. Asha on April 2nd, 2007 2:48 pm

    WOW!! Those Chops look good Sig!All dressed up and ready to go!:)

  6. Freya and Paul on April 2nd, 2007 3:12 pm

    These chops look so delicious and sticky with sauce!

  7. Sheela on April 2nd, 2007 7:18 pm

    hey sig, don’t answer if you don’t want to trade secrets (i perfectly understand), but, your photos are looking nicer these days: do you have any tips to share? (other than crop and add text, i rarely muck around with image software as I haven’t found much success…)

  8. Sig on April 2nd, 2007 8:35 pm

    Sheela, I used a perfectly white plate and a white background for the lambchops and used photoshop to remove some of the background noice. This is my first photoshop attempt though, haven’t done any digital fixes on the other pictures, just tried out different angles and cropped out to showcase just the food. More food I photograph, I am getting a better sense of what looks good, but still it is a really tough process, I am learning through practice.

  9. Sig on April 2nd, 2007 8:36 pm

    Sheela, forgot to add, I use the Sharpen feature in Windows Live Writer(my blog editor software) to sharpen some of the pictures.

  10. Prema Sundar on April 2nd, 2007 9:48 pm

    OOOh Wish I could have a plate of these.. looks very inviting.

  11. Sig on April 3rd, 2007 5:43 am

    Shn, glamorous was exactly what I was going for :D
    Thanks everyone for your lovely comments, your kind words always brighten up my day.

  12. ros on April 3rd, 2007 2:57 pm

    That’s an interesting point you made about how different cuts of meat aren’t really distinguished in India. Judging by how my parents cook, it is the same in Sri Lanka. Stewing mutton and lamb fillet all get thrown in the pan and cooked the same way.

    The great thing is, now the world is getting more cosmopolitan, we can have the best of all cultures, as this dish demonstrates. You get that wonderful spicing from Indian cuisine combined with the appreciation for how to cook different cuts of meat that you find in European cuisine. You can’t go wrong with that combination and I’m also trying to work to into the Sri Lankan dishes I grew up with.

    Also, I agree with the others. That is an excellent photo.

  13. Michelle, Maltese Bacon on April 3rd, 2007 10:22 pm

    I will have to try and make those, they look amazing.yra

  14. Sheela on April 4th, 2007 9:06 pm

    sig, thanks for sharing your photo composition and editing tips! you are right: practise helps; and good lighting; good styling too… gawd, there’s so much to learn :-)

    p.s: i keep debating whether styled food photographs take away from the earthiness of sharing the recipes that excites and unites the food-blogging community… on the other hand, i drool over good food photos! hm. toughie.

  15. Pravs on April 6th, 2007 1:44 am

    Hey sig, can you tell me the trick to take such perfect pic shot ? Looks very appetizing !

  16. Lotus Reads on April 6th, 2007 7:33 pm

    Oooooh, I own this book (Flavours of the Spice Coast )too but I have never tried any of the recipes therein! I am glad it has received such a ringing endorsement from you, I’ll be very happy to give some of her recipes a shot now. Can you name me a few of the other recipes in her book that you tried and liked? Thanks so much!!!

  17. Sig on April 7th, 2007 6:20 am

    Lotus, you have this book and those pictures didn’t entice you to try any recipe yet?????? I can’t believe that!!!! :)
    I’ve tried most of the non-veg dishes. My favorites are mutton chops, mutton kurma, meat oolarthiyahtu, chicken piralen, Mean Pollichathu, Masala Pomphret(I use Tilapia, hate pomphret) and Prawn Oolarthiyathu. My non-Indian friend always makes the egg curry from the book and gets lots of kudos on it, I haven’t tried it yet, but she swears by it. Hope you try the recipes, I’ve never had a bad experience with any of the dishes :)

  18. Mona Afzal Hussain on July 12th, 2007 6:56 pm

    Hmmmmm, they looked attrective in the pic, when i had them,li they were even more delicious :-)

    http://monaafzal.wordpress.com/

  19. Anonymous on August 5th, 2007 4:18 pm

    Thanks for this awesome recipe. Until now, I didn’t know which part of lamb to use to substitute for the mutton curries and other mutton preparations and even asked many mallu bloggers….but I got the answer here from you. I’m impressed. Thanks and Very good! will try this recipe out and let you know very soon.

    Thanks again.
    Rg.

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