Khoresh-e Bamieh – Persian Lamb Okra Stew

Khoresh-e Bamieh is a tasty lamb okra stew from the south of Iran. If you’re familiar with Persian food, you know, that we love a hint of sourness in our stews. In this dish the sourness comes from tamarind paste. This is an ingredient, that is used quite a lot in southern Iran.

Some people from more northern regions of Iran use pomegranate molasses instead. So if you prefer, you could substitute the tamarind paste with pomegranate molasses as well.

Ingredients (serving 4)

2 cups / 480 ml + 5 tbsp freshly boiled water

500g / 1.1lbs lamb leg + bone

150g / 5.3oz okra

100g / 3.5 oz tamarind paste

1 medium onion

7 cloves garlic

4 tbsp vegetable oil

3 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp ghee or butter (optional)

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp salt

Time

Prep: 20 min

Cook:2h 10min

Total: 2h 30min

Method of cooking Khoresh-e Bamieh

Cut the meat in about 2.5cm / 1″ chunky cubes. Fry it from all sides in 3 tbsp vegetable oil in a hot pan until golden brown. Remove the meat from the pan, leaving the oil inside.

Finely chop the onions and garlic. Gently fry the onions in the same oil you fried the meat in. After about 5 minutes add the garlic and fry both together for a further 5 minutes.

Then add the tomato paste and gently fry it together with the onions and garlic over low to medium temperature. If you like, you can add 1 tbsp of ghee or butter.

Season with the turmeric and black pepper, then add the freshly boiled water to the pan and combine everything. Return the meat to the pan and increase the temperature until the stew is boiling. Then put on the lid and reduce the temperature to medium/low heat. Let it simmer for 1h 30 min.

If you want to serve your Khoresh-e Bamieh with Aabkesh rice, start with the rice in about 1h. If you’re preparing Kateh rice, you can start in about 1h and 20 min.

After the 1h 30min of cooking time, combine the tamarind paste with 1/2 cup / 120ml freshly boiled water. Then strain it through a fine sieve. Use a spoon to move it around and push it through the sieve. Set the filtered tamarind aside.

Fry the okras in 1 tbsp vegetable oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Add the fried okras and the tamarind paste to the stew and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Then taste the stew and season it with salt. As the tamarind paste is quite salty, I recommend you taste the stew first before adding salt.

If the stew isn’t sour enough, you might want to add more tamarind paste. Just be sure to slightly dilute and filter it before, so that none of the stones land in the stew. Then let it simmer for a final 10 minutes.

Serve your stew with aromatic rice. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! If you have any questions please let me know in the comments, I’m always happy to help. I’d love to see your Khoresh-e Bamieh! Feel free to tag me with @igotitfrommymaman on Facebook or Insta so I can take a look and give you a thumbs up!

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Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your meal!