Traditional Kerala Mutton Stew
By Vinny • Mar 3rd, 2008 • Category: Recipes
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My grandfather was fond of entertaining and often had European guests over for lunch or dinner. Mammu’s stews were an instant hit and often they would invite themselves over to taste them over again. Herein is her recipe for Mutton Stew.
Mutton Stew
- Half a kilo of mutton
- One onion sliced fine
- A piece of ginger about one inch long chopped finely
- Eight to ten green chilies slit length wise
- The milk of one grated coconut (first milk to be extracted by squeezing the milk with your hands, or mixing in a blender for a minute, after adding a cup of warm water, The second and third milk are to be extracted in a similar manner and kept aside. Do not mix the first milk with the latter two.)
- One tablespoon of natural brown vinegar
- A stick of cinnamon
- Four cloves
- About a teaspoonful of whole pepper corns
- Pepper powder
- Salt to taste
- Ghee, a tablespoon or two
Heat the ghee in your pressure cooker. (my granny never used a pressure cooker all her life) and add the whole stick of cinnamon, cloves and pepper corns. Now add the sliced onions and sauté until soft and pink colored. Add the ginger and green chilies and the mutton. Saute the mutton until all the water has evaporated and the mutton begins to fry. Now add the second and the third extract of coconut milk. Add salt and cook the mutton until done. ( fifteen minutes in the pressure cooker or one and a half hours on a slow fire.) Now add the first milk. As soon as the mixture boils take it off the fire and add the vinegar and the pepper powder. Note that if the stew is too thin you can thicken it with cornflour or maida mixed in a little water.( Mammu used maida which was called ‘marikan podi’ by the malayalees which I think meant American flour.)
This stew is a local adaptation of the English stew. There are several variations to this basic recipe. Mutton may be substituted with Chicken. A fish stew is also made where in the fish is first coated with turmeric, salt and flour and shallow fried before being added to the coconut milk gravy. Popularly known as ‘Fish Molee’, and eaten with ‘Vellappams’ that melt in the mouth, this is a dish that is gaining recognition even in the North of India.
A pure vegetarian stew can be conjured up by replacing the mutton with vegetables. Carrots, potatoes, whole small onions, peas, beans, turnips, cauliflower, mushrooms or just plain potato and onion stew is equally delightful to the taste buds.
- Vinny
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Vinny is a trained singer and an excellent cook. She has been cooking at home and for the last 32 years and is now a restauranteur. An Army officers wife, she has travelled the length and breadth of India and has been exposed to many of the numerous variations of Indian cuisine. She likes to experiment and is particularly fond of breakfast food and meats.
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Mutton, I haven’t had mutton in many years. My Mother used to make stew from it too but you can bet that she would not have had access to coconut milk or chillies. Oddly though, we did have garlic (very unusual in the Welsh mining valley where I come from) and every now and then there would be lychees. Pearl barley would have been in the stew as would onions, potatoes and carrots and probably some aromatic herb scoured from the mountain side.
Vinny, Reading this recipé, I couldn´t help being transported to Cannannore on a nostalgic imaginary journey back in time. You can be sure that I will be trying it out just the way you explained in the recipé. I wont be able to taste it as I am a vegetarian since about 15 years but I´m sure that the smells emanating from the stew will be extremely evocative. I´ll make some with just vegetables. Thanks for this journey. Prem
Toni – that recipe sounds quite interesting – would you care to elaborate a little so we can try it out?
OK, it’s a long time ago, but, Mum would cut up the mutton, usually the cheapest part of the neck (all she could afford), fry it in lard then add water. It would then spend the whole day and night sitting on the hob by the fire to cook slowly. Then it would be cooled for several hours to take off the fat, at which point the vegetables, pearl barley and herbs would be added to it and set again to heat slowly by the fire. Always there would be suet dumplings – my favourite part of the meal. You can imagine how my stomach would growl since it took so long to cook and the aroma was so titillating. I’m salivating now just thinking about it!
Toni, Welsh-Wales, the names conjure pictures of a bleak and beautiful country side, verdant and craigy. " Wuthering Heights" comes to mind… Your stew sounds wonderful. The addition of Pearl barley makes it a complete meal.
Ha! I couldn’t wait to leave Wales, full of slag heaps and sheep! With a lot of snow in the winter making it difficult to get down the mountain to the town to buy food and even more so on the climb back up. I like Norfolk, it’s FLAT!
[...] can access Food! from your mobile phone? Thanks for visiting and let me know what you think! The mutton stew I wrote about earlier may be eaten with bread or chapattis but they taste best with Vellappams or [...]
I tried it. This is great.