Rustic, hearty, buttery and just a delicious bowl of comfort food. Extremely simple to make and is the best dish if you want to avoid the spices. The gravy gets its beautiful white color from the use of fresh curd, cashews and lightly frying the onions. If the onions are cooked on a high flame, they turn brown and then the color of the gravy appears brown
The gravy is extremely flavorful even though the spices are less. This is because it combines the creaminess of the ingredients with the mutton fat and its juices to give it that hearty flavor. It is a very light dish and goes easy on the stomach. The use of potatoes and cream just kick up the creamy texture of this stew, giving it a bit of heaviness along with adding a subtle sweet flavor.
Best made on a day when you are craving something not so ordinary or you are unwell and something healthy to eat but light on the stomach. Tastes best when served with some form of bread. I usually love to mop up the gravy with lightly toasted garlic bread or garlic naan.
The Building Blocks:
- 1/2 kg Mutton
- 1 medium size potato (cubed or sliced)
- 3 cloves (laung)
- 8 whole black pepper corns (kali mirch)
- 2 green cardamoms (hari elaichi)
- 1 inch Cinnamon (dalchini)
- 1 bay leaf (tej patta)
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger-garlic paste
- 2 medium sized onions (roughly chopped)
- 2-3 fresh green chillies (roughly chopped)
- 8-10 cashew nuts (you can use Almonds if cashew is not available)
- 1/2 tsp poppy seeds (khus-khus)
- 1/2 cup fresh curd
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 small cup water
- 3 tbsp fresh cream (optional)
- 3 tbsp oil
- Salt as per taste
For Tempering:
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds (rye)
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
- 1 tsp finely chopped garlic
- 1/2 star aniseed
- 6-8 fresh curry leaves (kadi patta)
Putting it all together :
- Take a pressure cooker, to this add the washed mutton, 2 cups of water and 1 tsp of salt. Let this pressure cook on high flame till it gives 1 whistle (around 5 mins) then on low flame for another 10 mins.
- Once 10 mins on low flame are up, take off the gas and keep aside. Let the pressure release naturally
- Heat oil in pan. Once it is hot add the cloves, black pepper corns, green cardamoms, cinnamon and bay leaf. Let it crackle for a minute.
- Drop in the potatoes to this pan and cook on medium flame for 2 mins.
- Add all the ginger-garlic paste and continue to saute for another 2 minutes.
- Lower the flame, cover and cook for another 5 mins if the potato still feels raw.
- Now take the roughly chopped onions and green chillies and add them to a blender. Blend till it becomes a puree.
- Add a little more oil to the pan if required and let it heat up. Drop this pureed onion and green chillies paste into this oil and let it saute for 3 mins on low to medium flame.
- Meanwhile in the same blender add the cashew nuts and poppy seeds. Add little milk and blend this to a fine puree.
- Add this cashew and poppy seeds puree to the pan and mix well.
- Continue to cook on a low to medium flame for another 2 mins. Remember that the colour of the onions must not change to brown from excessive cooking on a high flame, else the stew will end up looking brown in color.
- Add the curd and salt to the pan and mix it well. Cook for another 2 mins on medium to low flame.
- Add the pre-cooked mutton we pressure cooked earlier to this stew and mix it well. Nicely coat all the pieces with the gravy. Bonus: You can store the mutton broth in a container as use it as mutton stock or plain clear mutton soup.
- Add a little water to bring up the gravy, cover and let it boil for another 4 minutes.
- Till then prepare the tempering. Heat the coconut oil in a deep ladle. Once oil is hot, drop in all the tempering ingredients and keep the flame on low. Let it fry for about 30 secs. Then pour it over the mutton stew / gravy.
- Take off the heat, garnish with fresh cream and serve hot with Garlic Bread or Garlic Naan.
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