I was very late to discover the joys of Indian food. It wasn’t until I was well into my 20’s while living in London that I was introduced to curry. I can tell you that from that day forward, Indian food, has been one of my favorite (if not all-time favorite) cuisines. Living in L.A., we don’t have nearly the selection of Indian restaurants that London has, but there are still a few decent ones that I’ll go to every so often. I’m fortunate that my kids like Indian food as well, so getting out  to enjoy it is that much easier.

With my love of curry, I’ve even ventured out and tried other variations including Thai and Japanese curry and have liked both, although they aren’t as good to me as the Indian curry. I was really intrigued by this post from Russ of The Domestic Man showcasing a Persian curry, something I haven’t tried before. I’ve always known that there was a lot of overlap in the two cultures, but didn’t know that it extended into the food as well. The Persian food I have had in the past (thanks to a girl I dated in college) was always fantastic, but never resembled Indian food in any way. As they say, you learn something new everyday. When it comes to food and the history of food, I really can’t get enough. There are two things that really get me going in life and that is food and photography — get me talking about either one of those things and I will never shut up. That being said, I’ll shut up now and let you get on to Russ’ post.

Rogan Josh is a popular Kashmiri dish that is believed to have originated in Persia before making its way to Northern India and beyond (in Persian, “rogan” means clarified butter and “josh” means hot or passionate). Its signature red color is historically the result of mild red Kashmiri chiles which were used in making this dish. Over the years, many restaurants started using tomatoes in the dish to bring about that red color easily. My recipe follows the more modern interpretation of the dish, mostly because you and I don’t have the money to travel to Kashmir for some chiles! Well, maybe you do, but I most certainly do not.

An excellent cut of lamb for this dish was the other half of Lava Lake Lamb’s beautiful lamb shoulder (the other half was used to make shashlik). This slightly-fatty cut imparted a ton of flavor into the dish, which just tasted better and better the longer it simmered.

Read the full post & get the recipe

About Chris Armstrong

I created the Celiac Handbook website in 2004. It has evolved into a portal for new (and old) ideas related to healthy and sustainable gluten-free living and avoiding the usual pitfalls of the gluten-free junk food market.

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