 Coconut Mutton Curry |
I don’t usually do very complex recipes, but this is one of them and I’m very happy to say, it turned out well. Blame it on my partial south Indian heritage, but I do crave coconut flavored dishes every now and then. Since I had some time on my hands, I decided to experiment with a moderately complex blend of spices.
The first step in this recipe is the spice blend. I ground together fennel seeds, black peppercorns, cinnamon, green cardamom, star anise, nutmeg, black cardamom, cloves, mace and a slightly uncommon spice called teb mirchi. Next mix the mutton with the spice blend above along with some red chilli powder, ginger paste, garlic paste, salt and yogurt. Mix well and marinate for at least 2 hours. Finely slice some onions and fry slowly, until golden brown in a pressure cooker. Add some of the spice blend and then quickly toss in the meat. Keep the bowl aside. Stir fry the meat on high heat, till the entire mixture is well browned and you have a thick residue/gravy in your cooker. In the same bowl as the meat (why waste that lovely marinade?) pour some coconut milk (I used 1.5 cups for 1 kilo of meat) and an equal quantity of water. Mix well and pour into the cooker with the meat. Mix well, close and pressure cook for 15 minutes. When done, remove the steam and add another 1 cup of coconut milk (adjust for the quantity of meat you’re using), bring to the boil and take off the heat. Serve with steamed rice. ps: I’m too chicken for it, but I suspect a couple of ground, de-seeded, green chillies would taste good. |
I wish you’d come and cook that for me – I’m too scared to have a pressure cooker! It sounds a lovely dish, just right for the current cool weather. I haven’t seen mutton for sale, here in UK, for so many years; I know it is available on the internet but I have no way of storing the amount that I’d have to buy.
Hello Toni, You don’t have to have a pressure cooker – just try the same thing with chicken. I use the pressure cooker with mutton since it takes sooo long to cook otherwise. Of course, there is the problem of obtaining all those spices!
I have all but one of the spices, the teb mirchi, I even grow my own fennel! What type of flavour is teb mirchi and would the local Bangla shops stock it? Oh, my garlic/ginger paste is a mixture, should that be OK?
Ok, that’s neat! You can include a little more black peppercorns if you like, or omit it altogether. This was the first time I came across this spice and it’s new for me too.