Dad’s mutton curry
This mutton curry is dad’s recipe. Though he is no more with us the taste and the look of the curry he made for us years ago lingers 🙂 . I still remember how our eyes and nose watered but we just couldn’t stop having it.
It was green in color and very spicy. At times, when we three females in the house went out shopping, he stayed back at home. And it was one such time when we had gone out for some festive shopping he had made this mutton curry to surprise us.
The best thing about dad is he has no recipe. He just adds whatever he could lay his hands on – the spices and condiments. He will add a bit of everything that is there in the house.
So you can never get a recipe from him 🙂 . And the next time he tries making it will always be another dish. Meaning even he cannot recreate the same recipe.
When I asked him for the recipe he just said I used a bit more pepper and curry leaves. From that day I have been trying this curry but could never replicate his.
Even otherwise Non-vegetarian is at the max once a week in our house and it’s mostly chicken and at times fish. Mutton is ruled out coz neither hubby nor kids like mutton.
So once in a blue moon when I feel like having I buy a small quantity and make this mutton curry. Whenever I happen to buy, hubby dear will come and announce, only buy as much as you want and don’t expect me to have.
This time I bought half a kilo of mutton and made the curry. I told hubby to just taste a bit, and he loved it so much that he just could not stop eating it 😀 .
This is the closest to dad’s that I have made so far. The color was kind of brownish green and was less spicy than dad’s. Maybe a few chillies more and bit more coriander leaves will settle that.
Another trial will take a few more months or years 😀 . So I decided to post this one as is. The pictures also are not very satisfactory. Please bear with me, will update whenever I make it next.
I wanted this to be the first mutton curry that I post on my site. And I earnestly hope this will not be the only one 🙂 .
I can’t say for sure that dad would have made it this way, still, the curry was way too good. Do give it a try and I bet you will fall in love.
Mutton In India is the meat of goat, for people who are not aware 🙂 .
Over to the recipe…
Mutton curry
Ingredients
For marination
- ½ kg mutton(bone-in) (500g)
- 1 tbsp curd
- 1 tsp pepper powder
- 1 tsp salt
- a pinch of turmeric powder
For the masala
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp peppercorns
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp caraway seeds
- 1 tsp poppy seeds or roasted gram dal (pottukadalai)
- 3 cloves
- 1 piece cinnamon
- 1 cardamom
- 1 petal star anise
- half of a mace
- 12 small onions(shallots) (50g)
- 6 garlic cloves (20g)
- 1 big piece ginger (20g)
- 4 green chillies
- a handful curry leaves(8g)
- ½ cup grated coconut, loosely packed(50g)
- a handful of coriander leaves(25g)
Rest of the ingredients
- 3-4 tbsp oil
- 1 big onion(thinly sliced)
- 1 tbsp curd
- a pinch of turmeric powder
- 1 tsp crushed pepper
- juice of a half lemon
- 1-2 tsp ghee
- salt as needed
- water as needed
Instructions
- Clean, wash the mutton, and marinate with the items mentioned under 'for marination for an hour.
- In a tsp of oil, first roast the items from coriander seeds to mace. When it becomes fragrant add the ingredients from onion to curry leaves.
- Saute this for a few minutes and then add the coconut and saute for a minute or two. Turn off the flame and add the coriander leaves.
- Cool down and grind it to a paste, using water.
- Add 2 tbsp of this paste and ¼ cup of water with salt needed to the mutton and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Turn off the flame and let the pressure release.
- In a pan take 2-3 tbsp oil and saute the onions till it softens and browns up a bit.
- Next add the ground paste, a pinch of turmeric, and 1tbsp curd and saute. When it comes to a boil add the cooked mutton with the water in which it was cooked. Check salt and let it thicken around 15 minutes.
- Finally, add the crushed pepper and ghee as needed and turn off the flame. Squeeze juice of half a lemon, garnish with coriander leaves, and serve.
Hema’s P.S
- We never had garam masala in our house as mom used only the whole spices.
- I haven’t added tomato or red chilly powder in the recipe as I was trying to make it as green as possible.
- The curd and the lemon juice make up for the tanginess, though you can add tomato if you want to.
- Add more chillies if you prefer a spicy curry.
- Take care not to burn the spices as the gravy will taste bitter.
- If you have poppy seeds, roasted gram dal need not be added. For people in places where it is banned poppy seeds can be replaced by gram dal.
- I tend to remove as much fat as possible from the mutton before cooking. So the oil used is more. You can reduce oil quantity if you prefer to keep the fat.
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