Mutton Curry

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! It's no secret that mums are excellent cooks but you know who is better? Grandmas. As Hagrid would say, 'Blimey, did you never wonder where yer parents learned it all?'.

Until a few years ago, when my Dadima (my Dad's mum) was around, she would cook the most amazing food. While all her cooking was nothing short of stellar, what she consistently knocked out of the park was her mutton curry and her biryani (despite having stopped eating meat for several years). Every time my folks and I went to Bombay to visit her, she'd know that I wanted rajma chawal and vadi aloo for lunch and mutton curry and biryani for dinner and as old and tired as she was, she'd always make it. So, as the clock hit 9 pm, we'd all crowd into the bedroom (because that's where the telly was) for dinner. We'd spread a newspaper on the bed, set the food trays on it and balance our collective butts on every available edge and commence the face stuffing as either HBO or Star Movies played on the idiot box. Now, in our house, dinner is generally accompanied by something fried or similar, like papads or fryums or fries and my absolute favourite, besan waale fries which are made by sprinkling some gram flour on regular cut potatoes and then frying them, but for some inexplicable reason regardless of the number of people Dadima would make what felt like 6 fries. At first we figured she'd just miscalculated but nothing changed in the years that rolled by so each time we got started on dinner we'd all be looking at each other smiling and Dadima would be completely oblivious to what was happening around her dinner 'table'.

This is the recipe to Dadima's most excellent mutton curry and I can't help but wonder if she would have liked it had she ever got the chance to taste it as I make it.

For my Mutton Curry, you will need the following:

Mutton/Lamb	500 gms (on the bone)
Onion	1 large
Tomato	1 large
Potato	2 medium
Ginger garlic paste	1 tsp
Dhaniya (coriander) powder	2 tsp
Red chilli powder	2-3 tsp
Jeera (cumin) powder	1/2 tsp
Garam masala	1 tsp
Kasoori methi (dried fenugreek)	big pinch
Cloves	2-3
Cinnamon	couple of pieces
Curd (yoghurt)	1 tbsp
Coriander leaves	for the garnish
Salt	to taste
Oil

Prep:

1. Thinly slice the onion.
2. Puree the tomato.
3. Peel and quarter the potatoes.
4. Roughly chop the coriander leaves.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pressure cooker on. (Yes. This needs a pressure cooker unless you want to cook it for hours.)
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 20.
5. Pop in the cloves and the cinnamon.
6. Toss in the onion and listen to it hiss and spit.
7. Cook until the onion is brown.
8. Plop in the mutton and cook until it turns brown.
9. Add in a tiny splash of water.
10. Slap the lid on and lock it.
11. Crank the gas up to high.
12. Wait for one whistle
13. Drop the heat to low for 2 minutes.
14. Turn the gas off.
15. Wait for the steam to leave the cooker. (Don't manually release it by lifting the weight.)
16. Open the lid.
17. Turn the gas back on.
18. Dry the water out. (At this point the onions should have dissolved.)
19. Add in the ginger garlic paste.
20. Cook for a few.
21. Sprinkle in the red chilli, dhaniya, jeera and garam masala powders.
22. Mix.
23. Add in the blitzed tomato.
24. Mix and cook till the oil separates from the tomato.
25. Stick in the curd and stir furiously.
26. Add salt to taste.
27. Drop in the potatoes.
28. Add in about a cup of water.
29. Mix and add in the kasoori meethi.
30. Slap the lid back on.
31. Crank the heat up to high.
32. One whistle.
33. Drop the heat to low for 2 minutes.
34. Turn the gas off. (Any longer and the potatoes will disintegrate.)
35. Wait until the steam goes bye bye.
36. Pop the lid open.
37. Put the gas on and adjust the thickness of the gravy. (Either dry the excess water or add more based on what you prefer.)
38. Turn the gas off.
39. Transfer the contents into a bowl.
40. Sprinkle on a pinch of garam masala and the coriander leaves.
41. Serve with garam rotis or rice.
42. Stuff face.
43. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

 

  

Tip: Let the curry sit for a few minutes after you've sprinkled on the garam masala. It adds to the flavour. Also, this tastes incredible with crusty bread!

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!