Mutton Varuval

Whenever I go to the Indian restaurant for my banana leaf fix, I will always zoom in for the dry mutton curry. I simply cannot resist. Fried chicken, fried fish, chicken curry, fish head curry - please step aside. I want mutton, mutton, mutton!

Mutton is something that I rarely cook. In fact, in my lifetime, I only cooked it twice here and here. Now that Jaya Grocer is so near my office, it is very convenient for me to buy mutton. And that's what I did the other day.

I searched high and low for my cookbook - Banana Leaf Temptations by Chef Devagi Sanmugam. I couldn't find it. Bah! 

Then I remembered the mini cookbook, Homestyle Indian Cooking, also by Chef Devagi. That's where I found this recipe - Dry Fried Mutton (Kari Varuval).

I doubled the recipe, sort of, because I had approximately 1 kg of mutton. If I am going to cook mutton curry, I might as well go for it and cook more. After all, curry freezes very well.

Once the mutton was in the pot, I let it simmer and went about my other endless chores. How long did it take to cook, errr.... I did not keep track but I am sure it was more than an hour.

When I had a taste, it wasn't outstanding, tasting like the regular curries that I usually cook. But I knew that the curry had to sit overnight to work it's magic. So I dished the whole lot into a corningware and kept it in the fridge.

The next day, I reheated the curry and wow, what a difference. Now it tasted like a proper mutton curry. So, if you cook this curry or any other curry, let it sit overnight for the flavors to develop before tucking in.

Mutton Varuval

Receipe source : Adapted from Homestyle Indian Cooking (page 59)

Ingredients :

- 1kg mutton cubes

- 1 cinamon stick

- 10 cardamoms

- 8 cloves

- 2 tsp black peppercorns

- 2 tsp fennel seeds

- 2 big onions, sliced

- 1 packet meat curry powder (25g)

- 2 tsp garam masala

- 2 tbsp coriander powder

- 500ml water

- salt to taste

Spice paste (blended) :

- 2 big onions, sliced

- 1 thumb sized ginger

- 4 cloves garlic

- 4 sprigs curry leaves

- 8 dried chillies, soaked to soften

Method :

1. Heat oil and fry cinamon, cardamoms, cloves, black peppercorns and fennel until aromatic.

2. Add onions and saute until onions become golden brown.

3. Stir in the blended spice paste, curry powder, garam masala and coriander powder (do this over low heat to prevent burning).

4. Add mutton and stir to coat the meat with the spice paste.

5. Add water and simmer covered.

6. When mutton is almost tender, remove lid and continue to simmer until gravy is thick and almost dry.

7. Season with salt to taste.