Roast lamb shoulder with ginger and fresh turmeric recipe
Succulent and tender and falls off the bone with ease

Ovens are a relatively new addition to many Indian kitchens, said Roopa Gulati: in Calcutta, this lamb shoulder would originally have been pot-roasted on the stove or cooked in a big pressure cooker. Fresh turmeric is the keynote spice here – it isn't as astringent as dried and ground turmeric, and has a bright orange hue and citrussy flavour.
Ingredients:
- 6 dried Kashmiri red chillies
- 75g ginger root, peeled and roughly chopped
- 15g turmeric root, peeled and roughly chopped
- 4 tbsp sunflower oil
- juice of 2 limes
- 2 tsp coarsely ground black peppercorns
- 2 tsp sea-salt flakes
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp roasted and ground cumin seeds
- 2 tsp caster sugar
- 1kg onions, thickly sliced
- 1 garlic bulb, cloves separated and peeled
- 4 Indian bay leaves (tej patta) or 3cm cinnamon stick
- 1kg bone-in lamb shoulder
- 200ml chicken stock or water
Method:
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
- Snip the tops off the chillies with scissors, shake out and discard most of the seeds, and soak the chillies in enough hot water to cover them for 1 hour. Drain, reserving 4 tablespoons of the soaking water. Heat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan.
- Put the ginger, turmeric and drained red chillies in a food processor and add the reserved soaking water, oil and lime juice. Process until smooth. (You can alternatively use a stick blender and a bowl for this.) Stir in the pepper, salt, coriander, cumin and sugar.
- In a roasting tin large enough to hold the lamb, mix the onions, peeled garlic cloves and the bay leaves (or cinnamon) with a quarter of the spice paste. Put the lamb on top of the onion mixture and spread the remaining spice paste over the shoulder. It's a good idea to wear disposable gloves for this.
- Roast, uncovered, in the oven for 30 minutes. Pour over the chicken stock or water, cover the tin with foil and lower the heat to 160°C/140°C fan.
- Continue cooking for 3 hours, until the lamb is so tender that it's almost falling off the bone.
Taken from Indian Kitchens: Treasured family recipes from across the land by Roopa Gulati. To buy from The Week Bookshop, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.
Sign up for The Week's Food & Drink newsletter for recipes, reviews and recommendations.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Quiz of The Week: 14 – 20 June
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
Echo Valley: a 'twisty modern noir'
The Week Recommends This tense thriller about a mother and daughter is 'American cinema for grown ups'
-
The week's best photos
In Pictures Swimming with buffalo, a floating garden, and more
-
Echo Valley: a 'twisty modern noir' starring Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney
The Week Recommends This tense thriller about a mother and daughter is 'American cinema for grown ups'
-
Larry Lamb shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The actor picks works by Neil Sheehan, Annie Proulx and Émile Zola
-
Stereophonic: an 'extraordinary, electrifying odyssey'
The Week Recommends David Adjmi's Broadway hit about a 1970s rock band struggling to record their second album comes to the West End
-
Shifty: a 'kaleidoscopic' portrait of late 20th-century Britain
The Week Recommends Adam Curtis' 'wickedly funny' documentary charts the country's decline using archive footage
-
Lollipop: a single mother trapped in a 'hellish catch-22'
The Week Recommends Daisy May Hudson's moving debut feature is a gut puncher in the Ken Loach tradition
-
Marfa, Texas: Big skies, fine art, and great eating
Feature A cozy neighborhood spot, a James Beard semifinalists, and more
-
6 light-filled homes on the Jersey Shore
Feature Featuring a Victorian with a wraparound porch in Beach Haven and a condo with ocean views in Asbury Park
-
This week's dream: Exploring Rome's underground
Feature Beneath Rome's iconic landmarks lies a hidden world