Too many curries have happened in the past so let’s just do a dry dish this time. I love my mutton and I love it with spices. I have no patience to slow cook mutton for an hour. I pressure cook it and it’s absolutely soft and delicious. This time I saved the stock to use it in a noodle soup and the mutton went into the dry dish. A simple spice mix of whole spices dry roasted and blended together made this simply perfect. It’s also quite easy because it takes a basic tomato-onion base and this spice mix with mutton.
I made a tomato and ginger moong dal to go with this mutton and serve them with rice. Sunday lunch was good. As always, you can alter the spice levels by reducing the chillies or increasing their number. I for one don’t like it too hot because all other flavours are lost in the heat. If I use Kashmiri chillies I end up deseeding them. Here I’ve used byadagi ones.
Yield:
3-4 servings
Prep time:
15 mins
Cooking time:
40 mins
Ingredients:
Masala:
Dried red chillies – 4 small
Peppercorns – 2 tsp
Coriander seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1.5 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Fennel seeds/saunf – 1 tsp
Cloves – 1 tsp
Cinnamon – 1 inch stick
Other ingredients:
Mutton on the bone – 700 gm
Ghee – 2 tbsp + 2 tbsp
Onions – 2 sliced
Tomato – 2 chopped
Cinnamon – 1 inch stick
Cloves – 4-5
Garlic – 4 cloves crushed + 4 cloves chopped
Ginger – 1 inch piece chopped
Turmeric – 1/2 tsp
Sugar – 1/2 tsp
Method:
Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a pressure cooker and add the cinnamon, cloves and 4 crushed garlic cloves in there.
Tip the washed and cleaned mutton pieces and let them brown on both sides, say for about 2-3 mins.
Now add 1 cup of water and salt to taste. Close the cooker with its lid.
Let the mutton cook on high heat till 2 whistles are out and then on low heat for 20 mins.
Take it off the heat and let the pressure drop on its own.
In the meanwhile roast the whole spices for the masala and grind to powder. Keep aside.
In another large pan, heat 2 tbsp ghee and saute the sliced onions till they’re brown.
(I’m adding sugar in the next step and not the previous one because I find that the onions browning with sugar for more than a few mins turns it slightly bitter. Maybe it’s just my experience but I didn’t want that again)
Add sugar, ginger and garlic at this point and saute for another minute.
Add tomatoes, ground spice mix, turmeric, salt and a splash of water. Cover the pan with a lid and let the tomatoes cook down for 10 mins.
Take the lid off and add the cooked mutton without the stock. Save stock for another time.
Mix it all very well and take it off the heat.
Garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves.
