Mutton is my weakness, I like it too much.
That being said, we don’t have it very often. But when we do its eaten every meal till its gone! Its just the 2 of us munching through it.
I’ve added kohlrabi here. Olkopi in Bengali.
It’s a lovely crispy veg. If I have fresh leaves, I chop and add them too!
Keep your Kohlrabi al dente as they will continue to cook in the residual heat after.
INGREDIENTS:
2 kg mutton, shoulder and leg mix.
I use 3 large onions, 1 for each kilo meat and 1 for the sauce. Sliced.
7 to 8 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 inch fresh ginger minced
3 to 4 green chilies, sliced
Whole spices
3 bay leaves
3 cardamom sticks
4 or 5 cardamoms split
1 small black cardamom
3tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
1tsp of curry powder
2tbsp oil
2tbsp tomato puree
Coriander stalks chopped small
Half a small green pepper chopped small
Method:
Wash meat, place in a deep pan.
Add all the above ingredients, into the pan.
Add water to just cover the meat.
Bring to boil and cover and cook this on medium flame till the water evaporates and you have about about cupful left. Stir every now and then, being careful not to break up meat. This is the 1st stage where you have softened the meat.
Now at this stage lower heat and add the following spices:
2 tsp of coriander powder
2 tsp of cumin powder
1 tsp of tumeric
1 tsp chilli powder to your taste.
1 tsp cinnamon powder I have ground at home.
Now you cook off the spices stirring gently to not break the meat but till the oil splits.
Cook till you have no water left. Add splashes of water, cook it off till oil splits out separating.
Keep doing this and cook, add splashes of water and repeat this a number of times
so the spices meld with meat and you have a thick sauce, almost drying and keep adding splashes of water but do this for about 10 mins.
Last stage you will need
1 kohlrabi cut into chunks or wedges.
3 chillies slit
1 tbsp dried methi leaves
Here you want to then add water, enough to loosen it to your preference.
Add the green slit chillies, kohlrabi/Olkopi then cook on med/low till sauce reduces and you have oil raising to top, your olkopi is cooked and your meat is tender and cooked. Stir in dried methi leaves.
Take off the heat, sprinkle with coriander leaves and serve.
Tips:
I tend to use my stove top pressure cooker for the first part and cook for about 20 mins in 2 cups of water.
That way I slow cook with the spices to ‘Bhuna’ which means slow cooking off the spices over some time till all water is evaporated splitting the oil and cooking it in the oil but not frying it.
It works just fine on stove top too but just takes longer, but the slow cooking second stage is what really develops flavour!
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