A Simple Mutton Curry

I made this dish the other day for my brother Rishad who loves mutton curry. He calls this kind of a curry - "dark brown mutton curry from Delhi". Its a very North Indian way of cooking mutton and best with hot chapatis (which are a whole wheat unleavened bread from India).

750 grams-1Kg meat
4 Tablespoons beaten curd/ yoghurt/dahi
1 Tablespoon kashmiri red chilli *
1 teaspoon cumin/jeera seeds
4 Bay leaves/ Tej patta
4 black cardamoms
2 inch piece of cinnamon
5 cloves
salt to taste
3 tomatoes grated or blanched and chopped with the skin removed
2 tablespoons oil
Fresh coriander leaves

Grind together:
4 medium onions
1 tablespoon ginger
1 tablespoon garlic

Whisk curd and mix in the kashmiri dry red chilli. Marinate the meat in this curd mixture for 3-4 hours.
Coarsely grind the cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and cumin seeds in a mortar pestle.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker pan, add the coarsely ground whole spices mentioned above. Add the onion-ginger-garlic mixture.Fry till brown.
Add the marinated meat and salt to taste, and fry till the meat changes colour and the marinade liquid dries up.
Add tomatoes and cook. Once the tomatoes have fried well, add 3 cups of hot water if you want a gravy for rice and 2 cups if you want slightly thick gravy to eat with chapatis/rotis .
Once the hot water is added, put the pressure on and cook for 15 minutes.
Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

* Kashmiri red chilli is easily available in stores. It adds a deep red colour and is proportionately less chilli hot than other red chilli powders available.