Recipe: Mangalorean-Style Mutton Curry

If your lucky stars have aligned in your culinary house, you will get very fresh and succulent mutton in the market. In Mumbai, it is exceedingly rare to find such mutton and in Mangalore, the government has ruled out its sale and it isn’t ‘openly’ available. So, mutton becomes all the more rare amongst traditional dishes cooked in Mangalore.

This is a curry that I cook quite often when such an opportunity presents itself. It is important that the mutton has as less fat as possible – else it makes this dish very greasy. Mutton is cooked in ghee instead of oil. I don’t know the reason, but my mum insists on doing it this way. As most Mangalorean curries go, there has to be thin and thick coconut milk involved.
Here is how the recipe goes:

Ingredients:

1 kg mutton, cut into medium pieces
1 grated coconut (extract thick milk first and then the thin, keep both aside)
2 large potatoes, cut into medium pieces
3 medium-sized onions, sliced
3-4 tbp ghee
3-4 cloves
5-6 cardamoms
2 inch cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
Salt as per taste
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

For grinding:
2 tsp cumin seeds
4 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
10 pieces pepper corn
1 tsp turmeric powder
½ cup freshly grated coconut
A little scraped nutmeg
10 -12 kashmiri red dry chillies
Small ball of tamarind – extract tamarind water
One big onion
4 garlic cloves
Roast all the masala above (except the tamarind and the onions). Grind into smooth paste adding the thin coconut milk and tamarind water at regular intervals.

Method:

1. Wash and drain the mutton pieces.
2. Add ginger garlic paste, salt and set aside for 30 to 40 minutes to marinate
3. Heat ghee, add all the whole clove, cinnamon, bayleaf to this. Add sliced onion, fry till it is golden brown.
4. Add marinated mutton and fry for five minutes.
5. Add the ground masala to this and fry with the mutton for few minutes till the rawness of the masala disappears.
6. Add potatoes to this and bring to a boil till the mutton is cooked and potatoes are half done.
7. Add thick coconut milk , cook on low flame for three -five minutes till the potatoes are well done.
8. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
9. Serve with rice or idlis.

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