Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Lamb Boti Saag (or other meat of choice)

A few girls and I went for Indian food the other night.  My dear friend Deb ordered the Tandoori Lamb Boti Saag and we all swooned over it's deliciousness.  I decided to try my hand at it.  Problem is, I couldn't find a recipe online for this.  I found a lot of saag recipes, but none of them were creamy like the one Deb ordered.  So...I did my best to be creative.  It isn't an exact match, but it is quite delicious. My non-Paleo in-laws and picky children gobbled it up!




WARNING: This is a pretty labor-intensive recipe; a lot of ingredients and time.  

Lamb Boti Saag (or in my case, Elk Boti Saag)

Ingredients: 
1.5 - 2 pounds of lean, boneless, red meat, cut into 1inch cubes
5 TBSP Olive Oil
2 cups finely chopped white or yellow onion
1 TBSP freshly grated ginger (or 1/2 TBSP of dried ground ginger)
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp ground cumin (I left this out on version 2.0 and liked it better)
1 TBSP ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground red pepper (or more if you like it hot)
1 TBSP ground paprika
1 tsp turmeric
3/4 cup tomato puree (I drained a can of Muir Glen fire-roasted tomatoes and pureed them in the food processor)
Coarse sea salt, to taste
1.5 cups of packed chopped, cooked spinach (This is roughly 12 ounces of fresh spinach)
2 tsp garam masala
1 cup coconut milk (full fat, Thai Kitchen brand is best)
2 TBSP arrowroot powder (I subbed coconut flour because I was out of arrowroot)

Method:
Heat 3 TBSP oil in a heavy non-stick pan over high heat.  Add your meat and sear until brown all over.  Transfer meat and juices to a plate.  Add remaining oil and onion to the pan and cook until onions are browned, about 15 minutes.  Stir in ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, red pepper, paprika, and turmeric and cook for 3 minutes.  Add tomato puree, meat, salt and about 1.5 cups of water (or enough to completely cover the meat).  Bring contents to a boil.  Transfer mixture to crock pot and cook on high setting for 3-4 hours or until meat is tender, but not falling apart. Mix arrowroot powder and garam masala into coconut milk.  Add to meat mixture and stir until blended.  Fold in spinach.  Serve over riced cauliflower.