Andhra Mutton Curry!

As big a change as being married is, its been bigger for me being coupled with the move to a new city; Pune. I have always expressed myself through food and having my own house and my own kitchen has been such a lot of fun. Coming from a family that is vegetarian, I don't have much experience with cooking meat and so I have been reading many blogs to cook up some delicious dishes that we can enjoy. Being away from Hyderabad I miss the spicy, fragrant meat dishes that come from here and on this fine Sunday I took my first shot at an Andhra Mutton Curry.

 

I used the recipe from Kurry Leaves and it was a huge success even if I say so myself. We polished it off and licked our fingers delightfully. The best part for me was that it demystified for me the art of cooking mutton till its nice and tender. So here you are, read and try it out.

 

What you need:-

 Mutton -1/2 kg

Cumin seeds- 1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder- 2tsp

Onion finely chopped - 2

Coconut grated- 1/4 cup

Coriander leaves-1/2 cup

Coriander powder-1 tbsp

Ginger garlic paste-1 1/2 tbsp

Tomato finely chopped- 2

Turmeric powder- 1 tsp

Curry leaves- 2 sprigs

Salt to taste

Water

To roast and grind ( I actually just used 2 teaspoons of MTR Meat Masala, which worked really well)

• Cloves- 3 
• Cinnamon-1" piece
• Bay leaves- 1
• Cardamom-3
• Cumin seeds-1/2 tsp
• Fennel seeds-1/2 tsp
• Whole black pepper-1/2 tbsp
• Whole red chilies- 4 to 5

How:

• Pressure cook mutton with cumin seeds, turmeric powder, salt to taste and enough water. Cook till tender. This is really the key step in this recipe I feel. The meat was so tender, just falling off the bone.
• Heat a pan and dry roast all the ingredients for roasting and grind to form fine powder .Keep it aside. If you are using the meat masala you can skip this step.
• Heat oil in a pan and add 1 chopped onion and saute till it turns translucent. Take it off the flame. Grind the cooked onion along with the above mentioned ground spice powder (or meat masala), grated coconut, coriander leaves and coriander powder to form a smooth paste.
• Heat oil in a pan and saute the remaining onion till it turns translucent.
• Now add the ginger garlic paste and cook for few minutes, till it becomes fragrant
• Add the cooked mutton pieces(without the stock) and fry for 3 to 4 minutes.
• Add  chopped tomato, curry leaves, turmeric powder and salt to taste. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes over low flame.
• Now add the ground masala paste and cook for 10 to 12 minutes
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

We completed this meal with pongal and some roasted jeera aaloo. Was a delightul Sunday lunch and I hardly made any effort to put this up.