Making curries

I've just done a 72 hour lamb shoulder which I immediately cubed and flash fried. <br /> <br />After this, a fairly pungent coconut based sauce with a kick of chilles and tomatoes was combined in a vacuum bag for 30 mins. This appeared to do a really great job of infusing the flavour, and this was then heated through in the pan with the meat and juice. <br /> <br />I've previously found that cooking the meat with sauce leads to it becoming overpowered due to the cooking times involved. <br /> <br />

This is my favorite subject! In short, whether it is lamb, goat, chicken, fish, duck, beef, etc., and whether it is curry, koorma, chili, stew, stroganoff, rice-a-roni, or whatever you desire, the process is the same. The meat cooks sous vide apart from the rest of the recipe! Vegetables and grain products cook at higher temperatures, typically boiling or frying. Eschew the concept of "blending" the flavors together, and instead make the flavors "pop" by cooking each vegetable flavor separately. This is how a modern French cook prepares infinitely more flavorful Rattatouille. When a sauce includes meat flavors, deglaze the searing pan adding the bag juices to cook down (if the seasoning in the bag is appropriate), preparing the sauce just as you would if the meat were sautéed. Finish the vegetables together, and allow them to cool to near the water bath temperature before mixing in the meat immediately before serving. <br /> <br />With a curry, you'd be sautéing spices like coriander seed, cumin, fennel, red pepper pods, cardamom with onion, garlic, ginger, adding veggies to sauté in the spices, perhaps adding garam masala at the end. You'd do something similar when the meat is seared, but for just long enough to add a pleasant brown on the outside of the meat without cooking the inside. You can use the same pan and remove the meat to cool a bit before deglazing and adding the veggies. <br /> <br />Modifying a traditional recipe to make the meat more tender and flavorful through sous vide techniques is really very easy, and allows much of the work to be simplified and offset in time from the immediate mealtime preparation. This, in turn takes pressure of the cook just prior to meals. Because the nature of cooking Indian-style meals can be supremely complex, this is truly an improvement in the life of the cook.

Indian restaurants normally cook their meat for the day by cutting it into serving portions eg cubes, strips, joints, and then they simmer it in lightly spiced water until tender. The sauces are cooked separately and the two ingredients are heated as ordered. Cut your meat. Rub it with a mixture of garlic powder, cummin, coriander and dried ginger. Sous vide and add the prepared sauce.

That's a really good question, I'm really not sure which would work best. I bet that both of them would turn out well. I'd love to hear what your results are.