I love Indian food and one of my favourite places to eat it is Vij’s. The restaurant does not take reservations and unless you are there when they open, the wait for a table can be 1 1/2 to 2 hours! So you can imagine how happy I was when my favourite dish was included in their first cookbook http://www.vijs.ca/vijs-cookbooks/.  I have altered the original recipe to feed 2 people.

When I first started making this recipe a number of years ago, I had hard time finding fenugreek leaves. If you can’t find them, substitute curry powder. Not the same thing but most curry powders contain fenugreek and I just happen to like the substitution. As well, if I don’t have a bottle of sweet white wine open, I have been known to use mirin or honteri sweet seasoning. Sometimes you just need to go with the flow. :)

The most difficult part of this recipe is prepping the lamb “popsicles” by “frenching” a rack of lamb. You can buy a rack already frenched, but you may want to tidy it into “popsicles” by cutting out more of the fat on and between the bones, and removing any extra fat or silverskin over the front of the meat. Like so…

See how I’ve started to clean up on the right side?  When you are tired of this (good enough!), cut the lamb into “popsicles” like so…

I’m not a butcher, and probably neither are you, so just do what you can. If it’s messy, it will still be delicious, I promise.

For the lamb:

1 rack of lamb (approximately 1 to 1 1/2 pounds), frenched
3 TBS sweet white wine, mirin, or honteri
3 TBS grainy mustard
salt & pepper

Combine the wine and mustard in a bowl or flat dish with sides (I like to use something flat so the marinade doesn’t run off the meat). Add lamb, turning a few times to cover with the marinade, and lightly salt and pepper. Cover and put in the fridge for 2 to 4 hours.

For the curry sauce:

1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried green fenugreek leaves
(OR substitute 1/2 to 1 tsp curry powder for the above 3 ingredients)
1 TBS canola oil
1 TBS finely chopped garlic
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
juice from 1 small or 1/2 large lemon

Heat oil on medium-high heat in a pot on the stove and saute garlic for 1 minute until just starting to colour. Stir in turmeric and cook for 1 more minute. Add the rest of ingredients and heat through on medium heat for 5 minutes, until just simmering. You can turn off the heat at this point and simply re-heat when needed.

Putting it together:

Preheat a stove-top cast iron grill or BBQ to high heat. Place lamb on grill and cook 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Move to serving platter and drizzle curry cream over popsicles. Enjoy!