Wednesday 28 May 2014

Mysore Mutton : AFF Indian Subcontinent


My uncle once said that when eating out, always order something that you don't get to eat at home. Don't order chicken because you always have chicken at home. But I like chicken.....



For me, that dish that I never have at home (until now that is) would be mutton curry. I love mutton curry and I have always wanted to cook it myself. Finally I did it thanks to the AFF event. My first attempt was Masala Mutton and now, my favourite style of mutton curry - dry mutton curry.

The lady manning the siew yoke counter at the Pearl Pork outlet must be wondering where I am. Where is the fei phor who always ask for fatty siew yoke? Missing in action because this fei phor is slowly morphing into your regular akka, churning curries by the potfuls in the kitchen :)



This mutton curry is not difficult to cook at all. In the past, I allowed the long list of ingredients to intimidate me but now that I have tried Indian cooking, I will have to say that the seemingly endless list of spices don't scare me anymore. The first step in cooking this curry is to marinate the mutton pieces with yoghurt and lemon juice. Then the meat is boiled in a mixture of blended onions, garlic, ginger and chillies. 



Once the mutton is almost tender, heat up some oil in the wok and fry the dry spices and onions. The onions have to be fried until they turn golden brown and that takes a lot of patience. It seemed to take forever and there I was sweating away in the kitchen. Once browned, simply add the mutton and ground spices into the wok and keep stirring until the dish become dry. And there you have it, dry mutton curry. So how did it taste? Like "real" Indian mutton curry? If you asked me this question when I had just finished cooking, I would have said no. 



You see, after standing in the hot kitchen and breathing in the mutton fumes (hee..hee..), I thought my curry smelled too strongly of cumin. Even my tastebuds were not working properly and I was not that impressed with the first taste. But the next day when I heated it up for my lunch, it was a totally different story. The curry tasted very close to the one that I enjoyed at the restaurant.

With that, I am happy to announce (yes, announce) that my dry mutton curry can stand proudly next to the one from my regular banana leaf restaurant. But of course I am far from outshining the Indian chef. At least for now that is. Not that I am blowing my own trumpet but full credit goes to Chef Devagi's recipe from her book Banana Leaf Temptations. So the next time I have banana leaf rice, I want Chicken 65 :)











Mysore Mutton
Recipe source : Banana Leaf Temptations (page 63)

Ingredients :
- 1 kg boneless mutton, cut into cubes   )  mix and leave
- 6 tbsp yoghurt                                         )  leave to marinate
- 3 tbsp lemon juice                                  )  for 1 hour
- 2 onions                )
- 20 cloves              )   blend with 2 cups
- 10cm ginger         )   water till smooth
- 8 red chillies        )
- 3 to 4 cups water (more or less)
- 20 tbsp oil
- 2 tsp urad dhall (I omitted because I could not find any)
- 3 pieces cinnamon sticks
- 10 cardamons
- 6 cloves
- 1 tbsp aniseed, coarsely pounded
- 3 onions, sliced
- a few springs curry leaves
- 2.5 tbsp ground chilli
- 2.5 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp ground corriander
- enough salt

Method :
1. Put blended ingredients, mutton pieces and water into a pot and boil till mutton is almost cooked.
2.Heat oil. Add urad dhall and fry till it turns golden brown.
3. Add the cinnamon sticks, cardamoms, cloves and aniseed and fry till fragrant.
4. Add the sliced onions and the curry leaves. Fry till onions turn golden brown.
5. Add the mutton, curry powders and salt.
6. Cook, stirring occasionally until mutton is cooked and becomes dry.

Notes :
1. Start frying your spices and onions 1 hour after the mutton is boiling. It took me 1.5 hours for the mutton to become tender. That way, your mutton will be ready when your onions are nicely browned.
2. I did not add all the boiling liquid when I added the mutton into the browned onions and spices. I only added a ladle or two just to moisten the dish and kept frying until the dish was dry.



I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest - Indian Subcontinent hosted by Chef and Sommelier.




This post is also linked to Cook-Your-Books #12 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.

34 comments:

  1. why is the mutton sore??? come come...mek-mek waiting for u here... i cant imagine yourself as fei phor.....photo pls???

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    1. During Chinese New Year, the first thing Ko Hock (Chi Sian's hubby) said to me was "You put on a lot of weight". So you see, the family genes caught up with me and it has been a struggle ever since :(

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  2. I always dreaded to cook Indian curry or dishes because looking at their long list of herbs and spices makes me run away but on the other hand I loves their curry; so full of aroma and fragrant. Let me see when I am "angin" to try to cook this delicious mutton curry...or mysore mutton.

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    1. Hi Mel! Cooking real Indian style curry needs a lot of motivation and must be in the right mood. There were two dishes I cooked that did not turn out well, that's why I did not post it.

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  3. Hi Phong Hong, I really 佩服你! I actually wanted to submit a dish to AFF. Had asked a colleague whom joined us from India office early this year and shared with him about AFF. He recommended Vada Pav but I 'chicken out' after seeing the recipe :(

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    1. Hi Karen! hah..hah...I totally understand! There are other recipes you could try that are not so complicated.

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  4. hmmm, i don't really fancy mutton but then i am imagining this to be either chicken or beef or even oink-oink, and boy, like in your earlier chili chicken, i am drooling when i look at this.. look at the gravy wrapping the meat, fuyoh, it would be such a perfection to go with a bowl of piping hot white rice, basmati perhaps.. and again like i always like to say, this can make me wallop two bowls of rice!! hahaha~~

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    1. Hi SK! I thinks this should taste just as good if cooked with beef or pork. Definitely need lots of rice when eating curry!

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  5. Hi Phong Hong, love your mutton dish, definitely need extra rice to go with it. Very appetizing dish.
    Thanks for sharing with us. Happy cooking.

    Best regards.
    Amelia

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    1. Hi Amelia! I was happy with the mutton curry I cooked and this paves the way for more mutton curries in future!

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  6. Looks as delicious as the ones served in curry houses...I just love their curries and eat them with thosai or chapatti, washed down with a cold glass of lassi....just thinking of it makes me salivate!

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    1. Hi Jeannie! The taste was quite close and if I cook a few more times, maybe can challenge the Indian chef, hor? hee..hee...

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  7. PH I dun fancy mutton but your curry mutton looks so appetising, feel like having some to try heeheehee

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    1. Hi Jess! I know that some people don't like the smell and it is fatty. But the spices cure the smell very well and it turned out tasty. You might like it :)

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  8. It's so costly and time consuming to cook mutton.. Mum always says easier and more convenient and cheaper to buy from the Indian mamak.. RM10 or RM20 worth of mutton curry is less than the cost and time to cook it at home.. Give mum RM20 and it's not even enuff to buy mutton!
    Same here twin, I always always banjir my nasi kandar with mutton curry.. Not cheap.. RM10.50! A pack of white rice with mutton curry, egg and one vege, maybe some hati =RM10.50..
    Bet this dish is not cheap :)

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    1. Hi Louiz! I bought the frozen mutton cubes and it cost me RM35+ and after cooking the meat shrink and yah, can consider expensive. But cannot eat too often as it is fatty. I love the claypot mutton curry and that one aiyo...have to tambah nasi. But it is OK la to eat once in a while to give myself a treat.

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  9. Hi Phong Hong, I have the same experience as you. The curry always doesnt taste right, when I just finish cooking, but after few hours, it taste just like the ones from the Indian restaurants! So I usually tend to make ours in the morning, to have for dinner.

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    1. Hi Yen! What I read is that we need to give time for the curry to develop the flavours. But I did 2 dishes and even after the next day it still didn't taste good. I will re-attempt as I know that I did not balance the spices well. But this one fortunately turned out well.

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  10. I think after cooking, when one is tired and hot, everything does not taste nice...but after a while, it does taste a lot nicer. I just cooked curry for lunch today, chicken. Mine has a lot of gravy - want to mandi the rice and eat, nice. I used instant curry paste though - men, naturally lazy, always take the easy way out. Hehehehehehehe!!!!

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    1. Hi Arthur! You are right, Usually the person who does the cooking does not enjoy the food as much. Somehow, when someone else cooks for you, the food taste nicer hee..hee..Your chicken curry should be good as I realise that some of these instant curry paste are rather good. Much improvement has been made to these instant mixes.

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  11. hi phong hong, that was happened to my recent kerala chicken curry dish too, not so much to my liking but still managed to finish all in a day so not sure if it will taste better and different the next day. I hv another cook, southern indian cooking by devagi shanmugam, had tried out a few and all turned out good...like those that i had at the banana leaf restaurant.

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    1. Hi Lena! I am going to try the Kerala Chicken Curry as it looks pretty good from your photos. But won't be so soon as I have to take a break from eating curries hee..hee...I want to try more of Chef Devagi's recipes.

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  12. Hi Phong Hong, I don't eat mutton and beef. This looks good and I can only enjoy the photos. Maybe, I should ask my sister to try this dish. Her family loves to eat mutton.

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    1. Hi Kimmy! Your sister will enjoy this dish if she loves mutton especially dry mutton curry. You can stick to the chicken curries and they are just as delicious!

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  13. Hi Phong Hong,
    I love mutton curry, dry-style! Just like this. I especially love eating dry mutton curry with idli, lau-nuar just thinking about having idli with your curry! Idli is my top favourite Indian bread!
    I have one of chef Devagi's books too, and have tried a few recipes from it. She has some great recipes.
    Did not have my lunch today and now my tummy is growling, looking at your mutton curry!

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    1. Hi Joyce! Ah! I am waiting for the day when I can eat idli, naan, thosai and roti canai again hah..hah...I am still holding back on carbs and the scale is slowly going downwards fingers crossed! Chef Devagi's cookbook is worth buying. I really treasure mine hee..hee..

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  14. This is one dish that we order at Indian restaurants too going by the same principle your uncle has :) I have never tried cooking mutton. Yours look delicious!

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    1. Thank you! It is time you cooked mutton at home :)

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  15. I love curry mutton and like to sandwich with bread :D

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    1. Hi Ann! I must try making it into sandwich too!

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  16. I love to eat curry mutton or chicken whenever I am eating at Indian Restaurant. Your dish is making me wanted to eat TODAY.

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    1. Hi Amy! I am lucky that there is a banana leaf restaurant very near my office. I can go there anytime to get my curry fix hee..hee...

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