Have a couple of posts lined up! Doing the one with "Daddy's Special Mutton Stew" first! :)
The great Bar had been promised a treat of mutton stew! Lo and behold I set to work in the kitchen on a fateful Saturday morning! Step 1: Clean the mutton realllllyy well! and then put in a lot of ginger-garlic paste (freshly done) and add 'garam masala'. The garam masala should have cinnamon as one of it's ingredients apart from the standard plethora that goes in! :). Add soya sauce generously! (yes garam masala and soya sauce. you got that right!) Leave for at least an hour if not more. But not more than 2 hours else it'll start reeking of these flavors!
Heat some oil and add black pepper balls, tej patta, cloves, cloves of garlic as well, badi elaichi and that one masala that's shaped like flowers! (i dunno the name!) Careful here now.. the oil will pop and burst! (yes.. injury sustained). Add tiny round onions (if tiny is a problem then diced into chunks is good), tiny round potatoes and coarsely diced carrots and stir like stir fry!. Add the marinated mutton to this beautiful aromatic mix and let the mutton romance the kadhai (cook on slow fire without covering) till it leaves a li'l oil... the mutton will leave it's oil so u'll know it's cooked. It won't be soft and chewy yet but it will be cooked. The water/soy sauce et al will have dried out and oil will have come out! At this point mix in loads o black pepper and add some more of the garam masala. Tumble the entire mix into a cooker. Add about 2 huuuuge spoons of vinegar and cover the rest of the mutton with water! Give it 2 whistles and then let it cook on slow fire for another 25 minutes! Turn gas off and let it cook in the heat within! Open the cooker... add a lil cornflour (take some cornflour in a teeny vessel and mix in water.. then pour the mix sloooowwwly over the mutton!) and give the whole thing a weeny boil.
Lo and behold! Mutton Stew!! :)
Psst... another tip for the Rajma... instead of using cut up onions and tomatoes try using ones u've just run in a mixie. it'll give a smoother texture and a thicker gravy! :)
The reward was half a bowl wiped out by Bar alongwith a full loaf of bread in minutes! Reward part to was from a colleague who went on to say, 'I have never tasted mutton like this in all my life! My vocabulary fails me here!' And it ended up being his birthday gift as well! :)
The great Bar had been promised a treat of mutton stew! Lo and behold I set to work in the kitchen on a fateful Saturday morning! Step 1: Clean the mutton realllllyy well! and then put in a lot of ginger-garlic paste (freshly done) and add 'garam masala'. The garam masala should have cinnamon as one of it's ingredients apart from the standard plethora that goes in! :). Add soya sauce generously! (yes garam masala and soya sauce. you got that right!) Leave for at least an hour if not more. But not more than 2 hours else it'll start reeking of these flavors!
Heat some oil and add black pepper balls, tej patta, cloves, cloves of garlic as well, badi elaichi and that one masala that's shaped like flowers! (i dunno the name!) Careful here now.. the oil will pop and burst! (yes.. injury sustained). Add tiny round onions (if tiny is a problem then diced into chunks is good), tiny round potatoes and coarsely diced carrots and stir like stir fry!. Add the marinated mutton to this beautiful aromatic mix and let the mutton romance the kadhai (cook on slow fire without covering) till it leaves a li'l oil... the mutton will leave it's oil so u'll know it's cooked. It won't be soft and chewy yet but it will be cooked. The water/soy sauce et al will have dried out and oil will have come out! At this point mix in loads o black pepper and add some more of the garam masala. Tumble the entire mix into a cooker. Add about 2 huuuuge spoons of vinegar and cover the rest of the mutton with water! Give it 2 whistles and then let it cook on slow fire for another 25 minutes! Turn gas off and let it cook in the heat within! Open the cooker... add a lil cornflour (take some cornflour in a teeny vessel and mix in water.. then pour the mix sloooowwwly over the mutton!) and give the whole thing a weeny boil.
Lo and behold! Mutton Stew!! :)
Psst... another tip for the Rajma... instead of using cut up onions and tomatoes try using ones u've just run in a mixie. it'll give a smoother texture and a thicker gravy! :)
The reward was half a bowl wiped out by Bar alongwith a full loaf of bread in minutes! Reward part to was from a colleague who went on to say, 'I have never tasted mutton like this in all my life! My vocabulary fails me here!' And it ended up being his birthday gift as well! :)
