Leftover lamb curry in pita bread

Authentic South African lamb curry, made with leftover lamb and served in a soft fluffy pita bread to mop up all the delicious juices.

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Leftover lamb curry in pita bread

When you are only cooking for 2 people it is a bit of a waste to make an entire leg of lamb.  Unfortunately, Graham loves lamb so it does feature on the menu quite often.  I’m never quite sure what to do with the leftovers.  My Yorkshire heritage won’t let me throw them away, and there are only so many cold lamb sandwiches you can eat.

I’ve devised this recipe for leftover lamb curry, based on a traditional South African curry recipe and it is delicious.  It’s packed with succulent lamb chunks and vegetables, with a spicy gravy that goes so well with a pita bread. Bonus – Graham gets to eat lamb more often, and I don’t have to throw anything away.

When I have leftover lamb from a roast, I chop into small pieces, and then pack it into a ziploc bag and freeze for when I want to make this recipe. Leftover lamb stored in this way will keep for up to 3 months. To use it, I just take it from the freezer and defrost it in the microwave for a few minutes while I prepare the vegetables.

Because the lamb is already cooked, this meal is ready in the time it takes the vegetables to cook. And because it’s served in a pita bread you don’t even have to bother to make any rice to serve with it.

A brief history of South African curry

In England, there are many different curries – Korma, Madras, Tikka Masala, Jalfrezi, Vindaloo… the list goes on.   In South Africa, there are 2 main variants, Durban curry, and Cape Malay curry.

Durban curry, probably the only curry in the world to be named after a city. It is a reddish-coloured, slightly oily and extremely hot and spicy curry, its origins going back to 1860 when the first Indian labourers arrived to work on the sugar plantations.   Legend has it that when the labourers went to work they took left-over curry from the previous night’s supper for their lunch.  Instead of a container, they carried their curry in a hollowed-out loaf of bread, and so the famous South African bunny chow was born.

Cape Malay curry is a much milder curry, known for combining sweet and savoury flavours. It often contains dried fruit such as apricots and sweet spices such as cinnamon.  Traditionally the spices are fried in a little oil to release their flavour, before being mixed with the rest of the ingredients

Cape Malay curry has its origins in the cuisine of the slaves who were brought from Indonesia and parts of Africa in the early 17th century to work on the farms in Cape Town.

I have based my lamb curry on the traditional Cape Malay recipe, using Mango Chutney to provide a hint of sweetness.

You can make this curry as mild or as hot as you like – just adjust the chilli to suit your family’s taste.

How to make lamb curry in pita bread

You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions on how to make leftover lamb curry in pita bread on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

You will need the following ingredients. Don’t be put off by the long list – a lot of the items are spices and vegetables that you probably have in your cupboard anyway.

Preparation

• Cut the leftover lamb into 1″ cubes and set aside.
• Peel and chop the potatoes, carrots, celery, onions and tomatoes and set aside. Make the pieces quite small (about 1/2″ or 1cm in size). They are going to be served inside a pita bread so smaller chunks of veggies means you will be able to fit more in!
• If you don’t have stock, make your own by dissolving a chicken or vegetable stock cube in one cup of boiling water

Fry the spices

• Heat the sunflower oil in a large frying pan and add all the spices. I find it easiest to measure all the spices out onto a plate and then tip them all in at once.
• When adding the spices, adjust the chili according to your own taste – If you want more of a kick then just increase the amount. For a milder flavour add less chili, or leave it out altogether.
• Keep stirring the spices as you fry so that they don’t stick to the pan. Frying the spices releases the flavour and makes for a tastier dish.
• Stir the meat into the spices and ensure that all pieces are well coated with the spice mixture.
• Once the meat is well coated, remove from the frying pan to a plate and set aside.

Cook the vegetables

• Add a little more sunflower oil to the frying pan and fry the onions and celery with the garlic until they are starting to soften.
• Add the potatoes, carrots, tomatoes (fresh and canned), chutney, bay leaves (if using) and the chicken stock and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring it to the boil then turn down the heat to a simmer.
• Add the spice-coated lamb back to the pan and stir, cover the frying pan with a lid and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• I like to taste the sauce half way through the cooking process so that I can adjust the flavouring if necessary.
• Once the vegetables are soft, remove the bay leaves and stir in the frozen peas.
• Thicken the cooking juices with the cornflour which has been mixed with a couple of tablespoons of water. You may find you don’t need all the cornflour, so add it slowly. The amount you will need depends on the amount of liquid that is in the pan. You are looking for the consistency of thick gravy.

Warm the pita bread in the oven or microwave, or heat gently in a dry frying pan on the stove. Fill the warmed pita bread with the curry mixture and serve.

If you don’t want to use pita bread, you could serve this curry over a bowl of white rice.

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Additional resources

Don’t forget to check out my handy Cookery Conversion Calculator if you want to convert any of your recipe measurements from grams to cups, ounces, tablespoons or millilitres and vice versa. You can also use the calculator for converting oven temperatures between Fahrenheit, Celsius and Gas marks.

If you live at a high altitude you may find you need to adjust your baking recipes to compensate for this. You can read all about it in this post on baking at high altitudes.

Recipe – Lamb curry in pita bread

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What do you make with leftover lamb?  Let me know in the comments below.  I’d love to hear from you.