Slowly Braised Rogan Josh With Lamb

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1. 1Step 1: Place lamb meat in a bowl and add ¼ teaspoon salt and ½ tablespoon mustard oil. Toss the lamb with oil and salt - I use my hands to do so. Set aside for 20 minutes.
2. 2Step 2: Add yogurt to a small bowl and thin out using 1/4 cup water.
3. 3Step 3: Place fennel seeds to your spice grinder and make a fine powder.
4. 4Step 4: In a small skillet make the spice blend for finishing the curry. Dry roast the listed spices on low heat for a few minutes, cool off and grind to a powder using coffee grinder or mortar & pestle. Keep ready. Be sure to grind the fennel first, followed by the other spices for the finishing blend. This prevents the fennel's delicate aroma from being altered by stronger spices.
5. 5Step 5: Choose a heavy bottomed pot (I use my 2.5 qt braiser) for slow cooking. Use enameled cast iron pot or dutch oven. Heat up the mustard oil on medium flame. Mustard oil needs to be heated bit longer than the usual oil to do away the raw smell.
6. 6Step 6: Heat till you start seeing ripples on the surface of oil. Reduce the stove to a very low flame or take the pot off the stove for a few minutes before adding spices to make sure that spices don't burn in next step.
7. 7Step 7: Add bay leaf and green cardamom to hot oil followed by cumin seeds and hing. Saute the spices in oil for a 7-8 seconds. Wait for the aroma.
8. 8Step 8: Introduce the lamb into the cooking pot. Add 1-2 tablespoon of water as soon as you add lamb. This will make sure that lamb won’t stick to the bottom of pot. Bump up the heat to medium and start stirring using a cooking spoon.
9. 9Step 9: In 2-3 minutes, you will see that the lamb will start browning. Brown, or bhuno the lamb on medium heat for 7-8 minutes stirring regularly. We want all the pink to go away and deep brown edges to start appearing on the meat.
10. 10Step 10: Now, reduce to low flame. Add about ½ teaspoon chilli powder at a time and immediately drizzle 1 tablespoon of yogurt mixture. Stir around gently for 30-40 seconds to incorporate.
11. 11Step 11: Add more of the chili powder and yogurt and stir again. Do this in steps until all the chili powder and yogurt are exhausted, adding yogurt last. Keep the flame low so that the yogurt does not curdle and the chili powder does not burn. If at any point you feel that the pot is way too hot, take off the stove for a while and return back.
12. 12Step 12: After about 2 minutes, bump up the heat to medium and sprinkle the dry ginger powder, ground fennel, coriander powder, red chili powder(hot) and salt. Keep stirring, you will see a lot of liquid in the pot but that's okay. Fry (bhuno) the meat for next 10-12 minutes. You will have some liquid in the pot.
13. 13Step 13: Introduce ¾ cup hot water. Cover and let slow cook covered on low heat for about 50-75 minutes (or more, depending on how large the meat pieces are) till the lamb is almost 95% cooked. You will need to check the pot 3-4 times in between to ensure that it is not sticking to the bottom, add a splash of water as needed.
14. 14Step 14: Once the lamb is 95% cooked, add the ground spice blend that we prepared at the very beginning. There will be enough liquid in the pot. Cover and let simmer for another 20 minutes till the lamb is cooked through(fork tender).
15. 15Step 15: Switch off the stove. Add saffron if using and let rest for 20-30 before serving. Garnish with chopped coriander, reheat and serve.
16. 16Step 16: Pressure Cooker - Follow steps in a stove top pressure cooker. Please adjust the heat levels as I have mentioned in each step. After adding the lamb, close the lid and pressure cook for 35 minutes.
17. 17Step 17: Electric Pressure Cooker or Instant Pot - Follow the steps on saute mode of IP. Cancel saute mode and select pressure cook. Pressure cook for 20 minutes and let pressure release naturally.