Lunch: Grandmother's Lamb Recipe

Recipe by fauzia It is delicious served with hot basmati rice!

This recipe includes superfoods such as:

Cinnamon, Apple Cider Vinegar

Health benefits of Grandmother's Lamb Recipe

Cinnamon is one of the best ingredients that someone with insulin sensitivity can eat. Half a teaspoon of cinnamon per day has been shown to be very effective at normalizing blood sugar levels. Cinnamon contains hydroxychalcone, which is thought to enhance the effects of insulin. It has also been suggested that Cinnamon prevents post-meal blood sugar spikes by slowing the gastric emptying rate - meaning that food digests slowly. (Reference: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11506060). Apple cider vinegar will improve your body's sensitivity to insulin (Reference: http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/27/1/281.full)

Ingredients

1 teaspoon cumin seeds
6 dried red chile peppers (preferably Kashmiri)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped - or more to taste
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste
5 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne) or to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 pounds lamb shanks, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups water
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

Place the cumin seeds into a dry skillet over medium heat, and toast them, stirring constantly, until they give off a roasted fragrance and turn a darker brown, about 1 minute. Scrape the seeds into a bowl, and allow to cool. When cool, grind them with a mortar and pestle or a clean spice grinder. Set the ground seed aside.
Remove stems of chiles if necessary, and soak pods in the apple cider vinegar in a bowl until soft, at least 1 hour. Place the softened chiles with vinegar, cumin, and garlic into a blender or food processor, and pulse until ground into a paste, 30 seconds to 1 minute or as needed.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat, and cook and stir the onions until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in ginger garlic paste and about 1 teaspoon of the Grandmother's Chile Paste mixture or as desired. Reduce heat to medium-low, and fry the onions with the spice pastes for 5 minutes to blend flavors. Stir in tomato paste, ground red pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, and cloves, and bring to a simmer. Cook to blend flavors, about 20 minutes.
Mix in the lamb shank pieces, and stir in salt to taste; simmer for 20 minutes, and stir in the water. Bring the lamb and sauce to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and simmer until lamb is very tender and sauce has thickened, 45 more minutes. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro to serve.