Gongura Mutton (Lamb with Sour Gongura leaves)

Here is a spicy mutton dish I'm sharing that I tried and tasted recently. I have tried very few dishes with Gongura leaves and this one is my favorite so far. I have seen several variations of this recipe and this one is customized with my choice of ingredients.

Ingredients:

• Mutton - 1 lb (I prefer with bones)
• Chopped Gongura leaves - 3 cups, loosely packed
• Chopped onions - 1 cup
• Ginger/Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
• G.chillies - 3
• Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
• Chopped tomatoes - 1 cup
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Corriander powder - 2 tsp
• Garam masala - 1 tsp
• Cloves - 2
• Cinnamon - 1 inch
• Corriander leaves - a hand full.

Procedure:

• Remove the gongura leaves from the stem, wash under running water. Chop them roughly.
• Heat a pan. Add the Gongura leaves and g.chillies. Sprinkle some water, cover and cook in low heat for a few mins.  Cool and make this to a paste using blender.
• Meanwhile wash the mutton thoroughly and chop into small pieces. 
• Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel, season with Cinnamon and cloves. Once they pop, add chopped onions and fry for a few mins.
• Add ginger/garlic paste and fry for a min.
• Add the mutton and mix well.
• Add turmeric, chilli powder, corriander powder, garam masala and salt. Mix the mutton well until the spices are coated well. 
• Add tomatoes and fry for a few mins.
• Transfer this mixture to a pressure cooker. Add the gongura/g.chillies paste and 1 cup water. Cover and cook until the mutton is fully cooked. This may take 8 - 9 whistles depending on your pressure cooker.
• When done, open the pressure cooker, mix well and cook the mutton in high heat until all the water is evaporated and it becomes thick. 
• Finally add chopped corriander leaves and mix well.

Goes well with hot rice and any type of curry. As the picture shows, I enjoyed it with Sambar :)

Spicy Mutton Curry

After a long time, I made a mutton dish this weekend. I've been restricting to buy mutton for more than a year now, however this week the local halal store triggered my craving for mutton. I was not intending to post this recipe when I made it, as I was just doing it as a quick toss recipe with very little time. But after seeing the finished gravy and enjoying it with some rice, I couldn't resist taking a picture of what was left and post it.

Though I adapted this recipe from a Andhra recipe book, this is very similar to my mother-in-law's recipe. Honestly, my mother-in-law used to make this dish just for me whenever I visit her place, as no one else is fond of mutton there. I enjoy this dish with idlis and parottas mostly. With a slight variation by adding some coconut paste and bit of tamarind paste at the end, this recipe can also be a converted to a mutton kuzhambu that you can enjoy with briyanis or plain rice.

Ingredients:

• Mutton pieces with bones - 1 lb
• Cinnamon - 1 inch pieces broken
• Cloves - 2
• Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
• Chilli powder - 2 tsp
• Corriander powder - 3 tsp
• Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
• Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Onions - chopped - a handfull
• Curry leaves - a few
• Corrinader leaves - a handfull

For Paste1 :

• Ginger - 1 inch
• Garlic - 4 medium cloves
• G. Chillies - 2
• Cinnamon - 1/2 inch piece
• Cloves - 2
• Cardamom - 1
• Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

For Paste2:

• Onions - 1 medium
• Tomatoes - 2 medium

Procedure:

• Make a coarse paste of all the ingredients under "for paste1". Set aside.
• Heat oil in a pan, fry the onions until they change color. Add chopped tomatoes and fry until they lose shape. Cool and make a paste.
• Heat a tsp of oil in a pressure cooker, add paste2 and fry for a few mins.
• Add paste1 and fry until you get a nice aroma (about 5 mins)
• Now add the mutton pieces, chilli, turmeric, corriander and black pepper powders, salt and fry for 5 - 7 more mins.
• Add 2 cups of water and pressure cook together until the mutton is soft and cooked. The timings vary depending on the pressure cooker. Cook just about right without overcooking.
• Heat oil in another pan, season with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, fennel seeds. Add the handful of chopped onions, curry leaves and corriander leaves and fry until the onion become golden brown.
• Add it to the gravy and boil it for a few mins.

Enjoy hot with idlis, rotis or rice.

Hyderabadi Dalcha

Whenever I decide to go on diet, something comes and blocks me and makes it impossible to carry on. After feasting heavily for 2 weeks in the cruise, I was determined to diet for the next few weeks. I had all that fresh and energetic enthu going on for the first 2 weeks. If you are a regular reader of my blog, I mentioned that I even began planning my menu for the week ahead. Well, I should say I am still sticking on to my menu plans for most of the part, but dieting "vow" had disappeared long back! This dish is the proof :)

It all started when I happened to taste a mutton fry dish in a restaurant recently and I somehow wasn't that impressed. The spices weren't blending well with the meat. I could smell the raw flavour and plenty of hard-to-bite chunks. I had a feeling that I make a better version of the same dish! Don't get me wrong about my pride, but I believe that making a meat dish is an art by itself. It requires adding the right amount of spices to suppress the raw meat flavor, but at the same time not letting the spices overtake the vibrant meat taste. Balance is the key, and apparently that restaurant dish didn't have that balance. Since then, for some reason, the thought of preparing my favorite mutton dish at home was whirling in my head. May be perhaps I just wanted to get-rid of that restaurant taste that was still lingering in me and replace with any of my favorite dish :) , although I kept postponing it because of my 'dieting' aspiration.

But last week, the moment I spotted some fresh goat meat in the grocery, I knew I was in trouble. Its hard to resist when I see those freshly cut goat meat with nice stewy bones. Moreover the after-effect of my restaurant experience insisted me to buy it right away and there ends my dieting drama!

Alright, moving to the recipe.. I have to admit that I didn't have high hopes when I saw this recipe in a cook-book long before. My first instinct was - Meat and Dal? Really? Then I went on convincing myself - Come on, its a popular dish and its been tasted and approved by many, so it has to be good. And, I was not wrong. I love the unique flavor of lentils and meat and enjoy it more with plain rice than briyani. I've made it quite a few times so far and it gets better everytime! The secret is adding the right amount of dal.

This entry goes for Mona's RCI - Authentic Hyderabadi Cuisine.


Ingredients:

• Goat meat - 1/2 lb (with bones)
• Chana dal - 3 tbsp
• Tuvar dal - 3 tbsp
• G.chillies - 4
• Onion - 1 medium
• Ginger/Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
• Tomato - 1 medium
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Corriander powder - 2 tsp
• Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
• Tamarind paste - 2 tsp
• Corriander leaves - 1/4 cup
• Curry leaves - a few
• Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamom - a few each

Procedure:

• Chop the goat meat and remove just the bone pieces separate. Pressure cook the bone pieces with a little ginger/garlic paste, turmeric powder and 1/2 tsp black pepper powder.
• Soak the dals for atleast 15 mins and pressure cook them together with some turmeric powder, curry leaves and half of the corriander leaves.
• Heat oil in a wide pan, season with cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Once they pop, add chopped onions, g.chillies, ginger/garlic paste and fry for a few mins.
• Add the remaining corriander leaves and curry leaves and fry for a couple more mins.
• Add all the remaining powders along with tomatoes and fry until the tomatoes lose shape.
• Add the remaining mutton pieces (raw), salt and fry for 5 mins.
• Now add the stock from the cooked bones and let it boil for a few mins.
• Finally add the cooked dal and pressure cook the mixture together until the mutton gets cooked completely (time depends on the pressure cooker).
• Open the pressure cooker and add the tamarind paste and the cooked bone pieces, some water as required and let it boil for a few mins.
• Garnish with chopped corriander leaves.

Serve hot with plain rice or briyani.

Mutton Balls Curry (Gola Urundai Kuzhambu)

Being a foodie blogger, how can I not post my favorite recipe?! If you don't already know, I am a mutton (goat meat) lover. Ironically, I didn't have a big interest in mutton while growing up, although mom used to cook it once a week. Meaning, I love it, but I could live without it for months too. And my interest continued to descend after moving to the US, because we hardly get to see goat meat in the grocery stores around the places we stayed initially. And the other reason is my husband being a vegetarian, its too boring (also laziness!) to cook for myself. The only chance I get to eat sometimes, is in Indian restaurants, but the taste is not even close to the one I had experienced in India. The flavor between lamb and goat meat sure does make a difference and I almost gave up eating mutton totally for a few years. Well, not anymore :) I've a craziness towards mutton nowadays, god knows why! Perhaps mainly because I do get to see excellent goat meat in the grocery stores nowadays which makes me irresistible to buy, plus my willingness to try cooking different varieties is adding to it and ofcourse you all friends tempt me by posting awesome mouth-watering recipes :)

Moreover, I'm one of those freaks who love to do grocery shopping. I take some time to pick my favorite vegetables to make sure they are fresh and clean, and I walk up and down the aisles to see whats new and interesting. I like it but for my hubby its a torture :) Last week, while I was waiting for my daughter's ballet class to finish, I happened to notice in a nearby grocery store a big board saying "fresh goat meat - every wednesday" and coincidentally it happened to be a wednesday! Could I resist? No! And anyways it was due for my grocery shopping that week. So, I walked into this store and was impressed with the meat section. Minced goat meat special was going on that day and I ended up buying a couple of pounds, and I am so glad I bought that day as my Mutton-ball curry came out fabulous and I enjoyed every bite of it!

This is a beloved dish in our family! Whenever this is made, its a feast in our house. Mom makes it awesome with her special touch and we all thoroughly enjoy it. Although this is not a dish to prepare everytime, its certainly satisfies your craving for mutton whenever you have it.

You can make the mutton balls, toss them into a spicy tangy curry (Kuzhambu) , and/or you can deep fry them too. I make both ways everytime since my daughter loves the deep-fried balls, and I love the curry.

Ingredients:

For Mutton balls:

• Pottu kadalai (Chana dalia) - 2 tbsp


• Red Chillies - 2


• Cinnamon - 1/2 inch


• Cloves - 1


• Fennel seeds - 1 tsp


• Shredded coconut - 2 tbsp


• Minced goat meat - 1 lb


• Shallots - 7 or 8 (you can substitute 1 medium sized red onion chopped finely)


• Garlic - 3 small pods


• Curry leaves - chopped finely - 1 tbsp


• Corriander leaves - chopped finely - a hand full.

For Gravy:

• Shredded Coconut - 2 tbsp


• Fennel seeds - 1 tsp


• Kaskas - 1 tsp


• Garlic - 3 small pods


• Onion - 1 medium


• Tomato - 1 medium


• Cinnamon - 1 inch


• Cloves - 2


• Kuzhambu powder - 3 tbsp (Or chilli powder 1 tbsp, corriander powder - 2 tbsp)


• Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp

Procedure:

• Grind the first six ingredients mentioned for meat balls without adding water. It will be little moist because of the coconut, and thats fine.


• Add this mixture to the minced meat, along with salt, chopped onions, chopped garlic, corriander leaves and curry leaves and mix well until the ingredients are all blended well in the meat. Add 1 tsp of oil to this mixture, and make balls of your desired size. Set aside.


• Grind the first three ingredients mentioned for gravy to a paste. You can add little water.


• Heat oil in a pan, season with Cinnamon and cloves. Add chopped onions, chopped garlic, curry leaves. Fry until they turn light brown.


• Add tomatoes, kuzhambu powder and fry for a few mins in medium heat.


• Add 2 cups water and salt. Cover and cook in medium heat for 10 mins or until you get some nice aroma.


• Add the coconut paste, tamarind paste and boil for 2 mins. You can add more water depending on your required consistency.


• While its boiling, simmer the heat, add the mutton balls gently in the curry. Make sure you don't drop the balls on top of each other as they may break.


• Cover and cook for a few more mins until the meat is completly cooked.


• Garnish with corriander leaves.

Serve hot with rice. This curry tastes good with aging. So, let it sit for atleast an hour before serving. You can save some of the balls, and deep fry them too as shown in the picture above. They are yummy!

Chettinad Mutton Curry

After a few busy weeks, this weekend has been a luxury for us! Hanging around with friends till late in the night, snacking and munching most of the time, rolling out of bed late in the morning, having a relaxed picnic with our friends in our neighborhood park... With all these simple pleasures, the weekend becomes special. This weekend was one such lovely weekend! Weather was gorgeous and summer is here..... finally! It was just a perfect weekend for outdoors. A couple of long drives visiting a few of our neighboring suburbs and having a leisure walk in the beautiful downtowns with coffee cups in our hand.. yeah, this is summer!

At these times, I take it easy and I do not prefer spending time in the kitchen, sweating in the heat. Yet, can't compromise in eating something special that will sustain our weekend mood. "Special" is traditional non-veg food for me! While I was growing up, chicken and mutton (goat meat) were considered special. They were really a weekend food. Though chicken is now inexpensive and is affordable by everyone, mutton is not. Its more expensive than before and people are becoming health conscious too. Mutton has always been one of my favorites since childhood and still maintain that liking whatsoever. After getting married to a vegetarian, I almost stopped cooking it at home, but I do cook when my craving takes over or we have friends visiting us.

Chettinad cuisine is one of the most popular south-indian cuisines. The speciality is in the spices they use, especially in non-vegetarian food. There's just something in the flavor and spices that are entangled so well, that the outcome is simply awesome! Everything is hot and flavorful and made of fresh ground masala. This mutton curry is probably offered in all restaurants in tamilnadu that serve chettinad cuisine. I learnt to cook this from my mother-in-law. She is a vegetarian, but a master in cooking non-vegetarian food too! I always get amazed when I see her cook all non-veg food with perfect spices and flavor without tasting a bit. I think thats the upshot of an experienced cook!

I've made egg curry with the same ingredients (but reduce the spice measurements to half) and method (except the marination and pressure cooking) and it came out delicious.

Ingredients

Goat meat - 2 lbs
Onions - 2 medium
Tomatoes - 2 medium
Curry leaves - 10
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp

For the masala paste

Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 5
Cinnamon - 2 inch
Cloves - 4
Star Aniseed - 1
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Black Pepper corn - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Corriander Powder - 2 tsp
Shallots (small onions) - 6
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Procedure

Make the above paste and marinate the mutton pieces (cut into medium pieces) in this paste for atleast 30 mins.

Transfer these contents into a pressure cooker along with 2 tsp of oil, a little bit of salt, 1 cup of water and pressure cook for the usual time to cook mutton (depends on the pressure cooker).

Meanwhile puree the tomatoes.

Heat oil in a large wide pan and add the chopped onions, remaining salt (there's salt added in mutton already) and curry leaves and fry until the onions are golden brown.

Now add the tomato puree and fry for a few mins.

Add the cooked mutton mixture and turn on the heat to high and fry until everything is mixed well and reaches a thick gravy consistency.

Finally add the black pepper powder (this is optional) and remove from heat.

Goes well with Idlis, Dosai, Chapathi or Rice.

Kari Dosai (Mutton Kheema Dosa)

Weekend breakfasts are becoming so hard to pick nowadays.. Every weekend I become apprehensive in deciding what to cook for breakfast.. Since the weekday mornings are spent on cereals and bread, my daughter demands a better breakfast in the weekend and so does my husband. I now realize how much dependent we were on Idlis and Dosas back in India. Once the batter is ready, its very easy and simple. We eat that everyday but never get tired of it.

I do love dosas, but I don't need that everyday. On the other hand, my husband is a dosa fanatic. He can live on dosas 3 times a day, 7 days a week.. I know he is going to be happy even if I prepare just plain dosas on weekends. However just to make my cooking more interesting, I keep trying varieties of dosas. Based on my experience, anything and everything on dosa will come out great! Vegetables, eggs, cheese, chicken, mutton - all these are good toppings for dosas. I remember the dosa melas that used to happen in restaurants back in India every year with hundreds of dosa varieties on the menu, some of them I've never even heard of.. like pavakkai dosai, curd dosai (?) etc.. Just out of curiosity, we would go and try a couple of new varieties every year.

Kheema dosa is a popular dosa thats served in all non-veg restaurants in Tamilnadu. I love to eat this dosa in a home-style restaurant pretty close to our house in India. Just the thought of that dosa is mouth watering! Awesome taste and so flavorful! Everytime I visit India, I make sure to have a blast at that restaurant with my sisters and parents. Everyone in our family loves the dishes there and we all have a good time when we go in groups.

Ingredients:

• Dosa batter (3 cups of idli rice & 1 cup of Urad dal soaked, ground and fermented overnight)
• Mutton Kheema (minced) - 1 cup
• Grean peas - 1/2 cup
• G.chillies - 1 sliced
• Turmeric powder - 3/4 tsp
• Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
• Pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves - a few
• Cinnamon - 1 inch
• Cloves - 2

Procedure:

• Heat oil in a pan. Add the cinnamon and cloves. Once they pop-up add sliced g.chillies and curry leaves and saute for few mins.
• Add the minced mutton, all other spice powders and salt and fry until they are well mixed..
• Cover in lowheat until the mutton gets cooked well.
• Increase the heat, add 2 tsp of oil and roast the mutton until it turns into brown color.
• Add steamed green peas at the end and fry for a few more mins.
• Heat the dosa pan and start making dosas.. Spread the kheema mixture on the dosa while the batter is still wet.
• Turn it over and cook the kheema mixture well. Remove to a plate.

Chicken or Mutton Chalna is a great side dish for this dosa.