On the heat. Hot — pull the chilli back to 1 tsp for a milder pan

Ingredients

• 8 lamb leg chops, 15 mm thick
• 2 tsp ginger and garlic paste
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp salt
• Juice of 1 lemon
• — THE DRY MASALA
• 3 tbsp oil or ghee
• 2 onions, sliced fine
• 2 tsp coriander seed, roasted and cracked
• 1 tsp cumin seed
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 2 green chillies, slit
• 1 handful curry leaves
• Fresh coriander to finish

Method

1. Rub the chops with ginger-garlic, turmeric, chilli, salt and lemon. Two hours minimum in the fridge, overnight if you have it.
2. Bring them back to room temperature. Cold meat into a dry-fry gives you steam, and steam is the enemy of the whole dish.
3. Heat the oil until it shimmers. Curry leaves and cumin first — they will spit, that is correct. Ten seconds.
4. Onions in, and cook them properly: twelve minutes, medium, until they are brown at the edges and collapsing. This is where the sweetness comes from and there is no shortcut.
5. Chops in, in one layer. Do not crowd the pan or they will boil. Six minutes, turn, five minutes.
6. Coriander seed, garam masala and green chillies for the last three minutes, tossing hard so the spice coats every surface.
7. When the pan is dry and the masala is clinging rather than pooling, it is done. Fresh coriander over, straight to the table.

Cook's note. Dry means dry. If there is liquid in the pan at the end, turn the heat up and keep tossing until it has gone. A sukha gosht that is wet is just a thin curry, and it will not sit properly in a roti.

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