I Finally Learned My Mum’s Lamb Curry, The Dish That Followed My Family From India To Singapore

Recreating my mum’s lamb curry with the Thermomix TM7

I spent the first seven years of my life in India before my family relocated to Singapore because of my dad’s job. At that age, some memories become blurred or only return in small flashes.

But food? Food always sticks.

Maybe it’s because I was a picky eater growing up. Maybe I still am, depending on who you ask. But even after nearly two decades in Singapore, my mum’s lamb rogan josh curry has stayed with me.

My brother, I, and my mother. As you can tell, I was always the cheeky child.

When we moved to Delhi for my schooling, we went from a more fish-oriented region to one where lamb and chicken were a much bigger part of everyday eating. Meals became richer, meatier, and packed with spices. My mum’s lamb rogan josh was probably one of my first proper introductions to bolder flavours.

Lamb rogan josh was not originally just her recipe

My mum’s lamb rogan josh did not start out as only her own. After she got married, her in-laws introduced it as more of a staple in their diet, and she adapted it over time.

The version I grew up eating is a mix of what my grandmother taught her, what her in-laws passed down, and the changes she made to suit our family’s taste buds. That is what makes family recipes so interesting: they shift depending on who is cooking and who is eating.

Unlike the thick, heavy lamb curries you sometimes find in restaurants, my mum blends the paste to a finer consistency for a smoother finish. It is still flavourful, but more palatable for someone who has become a little more health-conscious.

I say “a little” because it is still lamb rogan josh. Let’s not pretend we’re eating salad here.

Learning the recipe before it becomes just a memory

For a long time, I took it for granted that food would simply appear at home. Then you realise your parents are getting older, and the dishes you grew up eating are not guaranteed to be around forever.

That was when it hit me that my mum’s recipes should not go to waste. Preserving her lamb curry felt like preserving a memory of my grandparents, my mum, and the way food has always connected us.

The problem was that recreating it was easier said than done.

I wouldn’t say I’m completely helpless in the kitchen. As the rebellious kid in the family, I regularly heard the classic “I’m not cooking for you” threat and had to learn how to feed myself.

Still, traditional curries have many moving parts. You have to chop the aromatics, blend the paste, fry the spices, watch the heat, stir the curry, tenderise the lamb, and somehow know when the gravy is “correct”.

And because many mums cook by instinct, their instructions are not always straightforward.

“How much water?”

“See first.”

“How long to cook?”

“Until ready.”

“How much spice?”

“Aga aga.”

Very helpful.

Recreating my mum’s lamb rogan josh with the Thermomix TM7

This is where the Thermomix TM7 came in handy.

Instead of treating lamb rogan josh like a once-a-year kitchen project, I wanted to make it manageable enough to cook after work, for a family meal, or when hosting friends.

Through Cookidoo, Thermomix’s recipe platform, I found a lamb rogan josh recipe to use as a starting point. Cookidoo houses thousands of guided recipes that can be accessed directly from the TM7’s screen or app (iOS | Android), giving you the structure of a proper recipe while leaving room for adjustments.

I followed the broad steps, then tweaked them to get closer to my mum’s version. Family recipes are rarely about following instructions word for word, after all.

The recipe started with onions, ginger, garlic, chillies, and spices. The TM7 chopped and blended them into a smooth paste, which helped recreate the finer consistency I associate with my mum’s curries.

Usually, this stage would involve a chopping board, knife, blender, extra bowls, and plenty of washing up. With the TM7, I could chop, blend, weigh, cook, and stir in one machine.

Once the paste was ready, I cooked it with the spices until fragrant before adding the lamb. 

This is normally when I would hover over the pot, worrying that the base might burn. The TM7’s guided cooking, built-in screen, and controlled heating took some of the guesswork out of the timing, temperature, and order of ingredients.

Of course, no machine can fully replace your mum standing beside you and saying, “No, not like that.” But the structure made the dish feel much less intimidating. Cookidoo provided the base, while my adjustments brought it closer to what I remembered.

The curry then needed time for the lamb to soften, the spices to mellow, and the gravy to thicken. The TM7’s slow-cooking mode handled the controlled heating and mixing, so I did not have to stand over the stove and stir constantly.

Its cooking-without-a-lid mode also lets you cook at up to 100°C without the blades rotating, giving you more traditional control over the curry’s consistency. There is also a Thicken mode, which maintains a fixed temperature and stirs constantly as the gravy reduces.

I still had to taste and adjust the salt, water, and spices. Some things remain a matter of human instinct. But that is also the fun of learning a family recipe: you begin by recreating it, then slowly understand how to make it your own.

Basically, the TM7 felt like an extra pair of hands in the kitchen—a calm, precise pair that does not panic when the onions start sizzling.

Family recipes should not feel impossible to keep alive

Modern cooking does not have to mean leaving old recipes behind.

Many of us want to learn the dishes we grew up eating, but traditional recipes can feel intimidating. They take time, the instructions are not always clear, and the person teaching you may have cooked the dish for so long that they no longer think about the individual steps.

The Thermomix TM7 does not replace the person behind the recipe. My mum’s lamb rogan josh will always be hers, and no appliance can recreate the feeling of eating it at the dining table while she asks what I did that day.

But it can make the recipe feel less out of reach, especially during the long weeks when my parents are away visiting family in India.

Its guided cooking, all-in-one functionality, precise temperature control, and modes for blending, stirring, steaming, and slow cooking remove some of the barriers that stop younger people from attempting these dishes.

And maybe that is what matters most; not getting it perfect the first time, but trying before the recipes become nothing more than “last time my mum used to make this”.

If you have a meaningful dish of your own, this might be your sign to share it. Thermomix Singapore is looking for its first-ever Thermomix TasteMaster, open to Singapore residents.

Participants can enter individually or in teams of up to two by preparing a dish using any Thermomix model. They must submit a photo or video of the dish, its name or description, and the story behind it.

Selected finalists will be invited to the live Thermomix TasteMasters Cook-Off Finale at Paya Lebar Quarter Plaza on 15 August 2026, where they will recreate their dishes using the Thermomix TM7. Those who do not own or are new to the TM7 will receive guidance ahead of the cook-off, while finalists may also choose to team up with their Thermomix advisor during the finale.

The grand winner will receive a Thermomix TM7 and $2,000 cash, while the other finalists will receive $500 cash each.

To enter, submit your dish by posting it on Instagram with the hashtag #ThermomixTasteMastersSG and tagging @thermomixsingaporeofficial  or through the Thermomix website by 26 July 2026, 11:59pm. The first 100 eligible submissions will also receive an exclusive Thermomix tote bag.

Find out more about Thermomix TasteMasters!

Photos taken by Lery Villanueva and Marcus Neo.
This post was brought to you by Thermomix