On the heat. Hot

Ingredients

• 10 lamb chops
• — BRAISE
• 2 onions, sliced · 2 tbsp ginger–garlic
• 1 tbsp coriander · 2 tsp chilli · 1 tsp turmeric
• 4 green cardamom, 1 cinnamon, 4 cloves
• 300 ml water · salt
• — GRILL COAT
• 150 g hung yoghurt · 1 tbsp gram flour, toasted
• 1 tsp garam masala · 2 tsp Kashmiri chilli
• 2 tbsp mustard oil · 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaf

Method

1. Brown the chops hard in a wide pan and set aside.
2. Onions, ginger–garlic and spices in the same pan. Chops back in with the water. Lid on, 60 minutes on low, until tender but still on the bone.
3. Lift the chops out. Reduce the braising liquid hard to about four tablespoons of thick, dark glaze.
4. Mix the reduced glaze into the yoghurt coat. Turn the chops through it. Rest 30 minutes.
5. Fierce coals, or a grill at maximum. Four minutes a side, until the coat is blistered and blackened at the edges.
6. Lemon, raw onion, mint chutney. Eat with fingers, off the bone.

Cook's note. The two stages are doing different jobs. The braise makes the chop tender; the grill makes it taste of fire. Neither alone gets you there.

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