Mutton dishes are an all-time favourite of many people all through the year. They can be enjoyed on an ordinary weekend at home as well as be part of a festive spread in a banquet. The accompaniments for mutton dishes around the world vary from bread, rotis, appams, and idlis to a variety of rice dishes and even sphagetti. It all depends on how you cook your favourite lamb/goat recipes – with a generous helping of spice or just a dash of it. In both cases, the taste of mutton stands out and overpowers the dish. Here are two versions of cooking mutton – a mild coconut milk based stew which is very popular in Kerala (India) and usually cooked in a mud pot and spicy

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Kerala Mutton Stew

Ingredients 

1kg mutton – cut to small chunks with bone

1 cup thick coconut milk

1 cup thin coconut milk

2 onions – sliced

2-3 green chillies – slit

1tbsp julienned ginger

½tsp freshly cracked blacked pepper

4 cardamoms

4-6 – cloves

2 sticks cinnamon

¼tsp turmeric (optional)

1tbsp cashew paste

6-8 cashewnuts – toasted

1sprig curry leaves

1 cup carrot slices and green beans – boiled

2 small potatoes – boiled, quartered

1tsp salt (to taste)

2tbsp oil

Method

Boil the mutton chunks in a pressure cooker with 4-5 glasses of water, salt, turmeric, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon till it is nice and tender. Set aside. In a large pot, preferably a mud pot, heat oil, and add the curry leaves and onions and fry till the onions turn golden. (Remove some of the fried onions and reserve.) Then add 1 cup of the mutton stock, 1 cup of thin coconut milk, cashew paste, green chillies, black pepper and ginger. Mix well and let it boil on medium flame for 5-6 minutes. Now, strain the cooked mutton pieces and add to the gravy along with the boiled vegetables and the thick coconut milk. Lower flame and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Remove from fire and garnish with reserved fried onions and toasted cashew nuts.

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Lahori Mutton Karahi

Ingredients

1 kg mutton – chopped to chunks

3 medium onion – sliced

2 tomatoes  – chopped

2tbsp ginger-garlic paste

1tsp cumin seeds

1 bay leaf

½tsp turmeric powder

1½tsp red chilli powder

1tsp roasted cumin powder

1tsp coriander powder

¼tsp garam masala powder

4 green chillies

3/4 cup hung curd

¼ cup oil

Salt  – to salt

1tbsp julienned ginger

2tbsp chopped green chilies.

Method

In a pressure cooker, heat oil and add bay leaf and cumin seeds, and let it crackle. Add mutton pieces, sliced onion, chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt, and half cup of water. Stir well, close the lid and let it cook on high heat till one whistle. Then lower the heat to simmer and let it cook for 7-8 minutes till the mutton is 90 per cent cooked. Now, transfer the contents of the pressure cooker in a wok and place it on high heat. Stirring continuously, add ginger, cumin powder, coriander powder, slit green chilies, garam masala, and hung curd. Keep stirring and continue cooking on high heat till the oil begins to separate. Add chopped green chillies and coriander leaves and serve hot garnished with julienned ginger along with naan or paratha.