Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Mutton Curry with Coconut Milk, A recipe from Tamil Nadu

mutton curry with coconut milk, recipe from Tamil NaduThis recipe is from one of my favourite recipe books called Aharam, Traditional Cuisine of Tamil Nadu, by Sabita Radhakrishna. I have featured another recipe from this book here.
While freshly made coconut milk will always work best, I have used Dabur coconut milk tetrapacks the thin milk, I use half the required quantity diluted with warm water. You can also make this recipe with chicken.

1 Kg mutton
1 cup curd
2 large coconuts/ 2 packets Dabur coconut milk

2 Tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon ghee/clarified butter
5 cloves
5 green cardamoms
2 (1" piece cinnamon)
3 large onions chopped fine
2 teaspoons chilli powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons garlic paste
1 teaspoon ginger paste
salt to taste

Clean and wash mutton. Marinate with cup beaten curd.
Grate the coconuts and extract 2 cups thick milk and 1 1/2 cups thin milk
Heat the ghee and oil together in a pressure cooker. Add the whole spices coarsely crushed in a mortar and pestle.
Add the onions and fry for 5 minutes. Add the ginger, garlic, chilli -coriander-turmeric powders and fry together on a low heat for 5-8 minutes.
Add the marinated meat and fry till the oil rises to the top.
Add the thin coconut milk or diluted dabur coconut milk to the meat and the salt and pressure for 15 minutes.
After the pressure cools add the thick milk and simmer till the curry becomes thick and golden coloured.

11 comments:

Harish Khosla said...

Regret, came out pretty poor. Regards,
Harish

Ria Patel said...

Hi Harish, sorry to hear that. I wonder what went wrong?
This is one of the most popular dishes I cook. In fact I cater in Bangalore and this often gets ordered.

Harish Khosla said...

Dunno! Maybe I blundered somewhere alon the line. Regards, Harish

Anonymous said...

Hi Ria,

Sorry to say this it cant be a true south indian b'cause we tamilians wont mix curd in non.veg items, and the coconut milk addition is influenced from keralites.

So this recipe is a south indian variety.

Cheers.

Ria Patel said...

Dear Anonymous,

As mentioned in my post the recipe is from the book AHARAM, The Best of traditional cuisine of Tamil Nadu. the book is by Sabita Radhakrishna, who's main aim in writing this book was to document the 'traditional" cooking of the region. So, what you may think is not "true" south Indian may be quite true to someone else from there. In fact I strongly urge you to buy the book, and make this very recipe, TRUE or not you'll make this dish again and again and still again.

Anonymous said...

I think this was meant to be mutton assad. Omit the curd. Add curry leaves and 3 slit green chillies while frying the onions. Add one tomato chopped and fry. Add some coriander leaves ground along with the coconut milk. No need to add thick and thin milk separately. Good luck!!

kav ita said...

Of what little i know about tamilians curds and coconut milk don't go together. It's nevertheless a good recipe'easy to make esp for north indians kavita

RV said...

Made this today for our Arora family lunch and I have to say it was simply superb.
Thank you Pallavi for recommending this site :-)

Ria Patel said...

Thanks RV for visiting my blog ! I'm glad you liked this recipe. You've inspired me to start blogging again. Sunit, Shalini and Pallavi are old family friends of ours. My brother loves this dish a lot and I make it every time he comes to Bangalore :-)

Anonymous said...

How long v hv to cook mutton , sorry u didnt mention the time or whistles v hv to wait for...

Ria Patel said...

Dear Anonymous, I have mentioned pressure cook for 15 minutes. I would suggest pressure cooking this on a medium fire for 15 minutes. Different pressure will give 3-4 or 4-5 whistles.
Hope this helps.