On the heat. Hot

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg lamb trotters, split
• 250 g dried sugar beans, soaked overnight
• 4 tbsp oil
• 3 onions, sliced fine
• 2 tbsp ginger–garlic paste
• 3 tbsp Durban masala
• 1 tbsp ground coriander, 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp fennel
• 3 tomatoes, grated
• Curry leaves, cinnamon stick
• 1.5 l water · salt

Method

1. Wash the trotters in several changes of water, then boil them hard for 10 minutes and drain. This one step removes the scum that otherwise cloudies the whole pot.
2. Brown the onions with the whole spices for 12 minutes. Ginger–garlic, then the ground spices with a splash of water.
3. Trotters in, turned in the masala for 5 minutes. Tomato in, cook until the oil separates.
4. Water in, lid on, 2½ hours on the lowest heat. The trotters are ready when the skin is completely soft and the gravy has gone glossy and slightly sticky.
5. Drained soaked beans in for the last 45 minutes. Adding them earlier turns them to mush.
6. Salt at the end, never at the start — salt early and the beans stay hard. Rest 15 minutes. Eat with plain rice and your fingers.

Cook's note. It will set solid in the fridge. That is the gelatine, and it is the proof you did it right. It melts again the moment it is warmed.

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