Curried Ground Lamb with Onions (Kheema do Pyaza)
April 12, 2007
- 1/4 cup ghee (or plain butter)
- 3 large onions (halved and sliced into paper-thin slivers)
- 2 teaspoons peeled, finely chopped fresh ginger root
- 1 medium sized garlic clove, peeled and crushed slightly with the flat side of a large knife
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 pound ground lamb
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon tumeric
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground hot red pepper
- 3 medium sized firm, ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
- 1/4 cup water
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
In a heavy 2-3 quart saucepan, heat the butter and fry 1 cup of the onions 10-15 minutes, until browned and somewhat crisp. Transfer the onions to a bowl, leaving some butter in the pan and set aside.
Add the remaining slivered onions, ginger, garlic and salt to the butter left in the pan. Fry for 7-8 minutes, until the onions are soft and golden brown. Add the lamb and continue stirring until the meat shows no trace of pink. Stir in the garam masala, turmeric, cumin, ground coriander, red pepper, the tomatoes, yoghurt and water. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover tightly, and simmer for 10 minutes.
To serve, ladle the contents into a bowl and sprinkle the top with the fresh cilantro and fried onions.
The calves keep coming (and coming)
April 12, 2007
Well, as of this morning we are up to 77 new calves and moms. The calving season has been going very well. Birthing is always a very stressful time, for both humans and animals. If there is a problem in feed quality, or any other weakness in the system, calving time is when it will show up. Jerseys are particularly suseptable to milk fever, a sudden drop in blood calcium brought on by the demands of calving and milk production. We did lose one cow, either to milk fever or a heart attack, it’s hard to say for sure. She had a beautiful live calf and we found her dead the next morning. Not a good way to start the day. The calves are doing very well, even with this challenging April weather. We haven’t had to assist at any birthing this year! It is so nice when the births are easy – so much better for the health of both the calves and mom. Most of the calves are born in the well bedded loafing sheds. We let mom lick off her calf (if she wants to) and then we take the calf into the barn for its all important colostrum and a musi shot (selenium and Vit. E). It’s unfortunate to seperate mom and baby, but we do it for several reasons. First off, if you are going to seperate them, its really better to do it soon after birth and before they bond. If left together for even 24 hours, the seperation is really tramatic – with both bawling at the top of their lungs. Done soon after birth, mom usually doesn’t even seem to miss her calf all that much. The second reason we pull the calf away is that we can’t depend on mom to feed her calf that very important first colostrum. The dairy cow, for the last 100 years, has been bred for milk, and more milk, and more milk after that. Mothering ability hasn’t even entered the equation. As a result, mom often has her calf and then walks away. A calf isn’t born with any natural imunity. It absolutely needs that first milk for its very life. Thirdly, even if we did try to leave baby with mom, think about the logistics of trying to bring 77 cows (and their calves) into the parlor for milking. The calves could NOT come into the parlor (no room), so where do they go while mom is busy? And how do we seperate them temporarily twice a day? So, we play mother, and bring the calves into pens in the old dairy barn. They are there just long enough to learn how to suck off the New Zealand nipples (about 3 days), and then they are moved outside into groups of 13. Each calf paddock has a shelter that we keep well bedded with straw. They stay together as a group until weaning (7-8 weeks old), when they then move out to pasture. We then add each newly weaned group to the already weaned group until everyone is old enough and we have just one large group. And another years calving is done!
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