Southern Indian Lamb Curry

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I read most of the reviews before I made this dish, so I reduced the amount of spice I used. The consistency had the graininess of the spices no matter how long I cooked it and I thought the spices still overwhelmed the other flavors. The meat wasn't as tender as I would have liked, but it was a lot better 2 days later. I am south Indian and when I cook I tend to use whole spices. I think this dish might be better with whole spices to avoid the grainy consistency. You can always pull them out afterwards.

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I watched the show and a couple of things struck me regarding the Turmeric.
First - Tyler put about a rounded tablespoon of turmeric into this dish. That's a lot of turmeric. It can certainly make a curry bitter.
Second - Tyler didn't really mention one of the cardinal techniques of Indian cooking [whichever part of India the recipe is from]. The powdered spice mix MUST be WELL fried in the oil before putting the meat in. The alternative is to marinate the meat in the spice combination and then slow-cook it but with this recipe - I think it should have been mentioned that the spices that were put into the oil need to be well fried. In my experience - the spice mix is usually in the form of a paste [since most Indian cooks will stone-grind all the spices with a little water]. Once the paste is put in the oil and begins to stick on the bottom of the pan - we usually add a little more water - a couple of times - so that the spices get well cooked in the oil before the meat is added.
Certainly watch out for the quantity of turmeric.
Third - Turmeric is NOT just a color agent. It has a very definite flavor. And it is well known [at least in India] to be a very medicinal root.
Here's a quick recipe that will give you a very good idea about what turmeric does for flavor:
Fry a couple of large potatoes at medium-high in some oil in a non-stick saucepan.
When the potatoes are beginning to brown - sprinkle a half TEAspoon of turmeric & salt to taste on them.
Stir well, cover tightly & lower heat to Low [around 3] & cook for 15 minutes.
Try that with some toast & butter [or anything, really].
It's a simple variation of a quick breakfast preparation that will demonstrate exactly what turmeric tastes like [provided you know what fried potatoes taste like without turmeric!!! :D].
I understand turmeric also has cancer-fighting properties.
I DID kind of carry on . . . didn't I??? Hope this is helpful.

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have made this a couple times. do use lamb shoulder -- leg of lamb (my mistake does not have enough fat and connective tissue and turns out dry without that unctuous mouth feel you look for in braised dishes. do not use as much whole cloves (his mistake as in the written recipe. TYLER doesn't on the show and will make the dish bitter (see previous reviews. i'm not that much a stickler for tradition but used ghee (clarified butter instead of olive oil and added a little palm sugar.

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Food......Madras curry powder is the combination of all the spices

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This recipe gets you in the direction of great lamb curry. I like to adjust the spices a bit.

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The show and the recipe do not match up exactly. The recipe here shows equal proportions of all the curry ingredients... that's way too much clove- would be overpowering. He even says in the show a little goes a long way. This might be what people are calling "bitter".

And as for the Madras curry powder- he used the homemade stuff with the lamb, and for some reason the store bought Madras in the samosas.

But anyway... made all this last weekend and it was pretty good.

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On the show, he used 1/4 cup of Madras curry powder at the beginning with the cinnamon stick, but it is not in the online recipe. Maybe that is another reason it is coming out bitter???

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I wondered why many of the reviews of this recipe stated that the curry was bitter. I watched the show and compared it to the recipe. When Tyler added the 5 tomatoes to the curry, he also added 2 cups of water. There is no mention of the 2 cups of water in the recipe. This might explain the bitterness.

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Hi, i made this dish despite the bad reviews.. when finished i realized it was just to bitter for my taste.
i had guest coming over so i had to fix it.
i didn't have any seeds so i used powder for everything.
i used lamb stew bones and meat. it has a better texture & flavor.
i grated the ginger,i chopped the tomatoes into 4 pieces each.
one pinch of chili powder(instead of 1 red chili
instead of 1 tablespoon, i used 1 teaspoon for everything.
instead of 40 minutes i left it for 1 hour, i added chopped potatoes,1 tablespoon of garlic powder, 1 teaspoon of onion powder, a hand full of chopped cilantro & kosher salt to taste.
.
That did the trick, everyone was amazed at how good it was(so was i. i hope you like this new twist.

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I halved this recipe. Based on the previous reviews, I ground 1 tsp each of cumin & fennel, about 5 cardamom pods, some ground cloves, ground cinnamon and ground tumeric. I didn't use the curry leaves as I couldn't find them. With these tweaks, there was no bitterness, and it was fabulous. I made the basmati rice using a couple of ginger coins in the water along with the salt, and that made a big difference. Served with naan and raita.