White Mutton Stew with Carrots , Beans & Potatoes

Ingredients :

1. Mutton - 500 gms cubed ,washed and drained
2. Carrots - 2 cut into big cubes
3. Potatoes - 3 diced into big cubes
4. Green beans - 10 stringed and cut into 1 inch slices
5. medium Onion - 4 chopped thin 
6. Garlic - 10 cloved chopped
7. Ginger - 1 inch piece chopped
8. Green chilly - 5 slit
9. Thick coconut milk - 1 cups
10. Thin coconut milk - 2 cups
11. curry leaves - 2 springs
12. Whole spices - 5 cardamom, 1 inch cinnamon piece , 1 tsp black pepper ,1 tsp fennel seeds crushed,6 cloves
13. coarsely crushed black pepper - 1/2 tsp
14. salt - to taste
15. vinegar - 3 tbsp
16. Oil - 2 tbsp

Method:
Heat a pressure cooker pan and add oil.
Add in chopped onion , ginger,garlic,green chillies, curry leaves, whole spices and salt and saute until onion has wilted.
Add in mutton cubes , salt to taste and vinegar .Mix well. put on the lid and pressure cook for 10 minutes after the first whistle .
Turn off the flame and allow the pressure to release by itself.
open the lid , taste for salt and vinegar , add in the cubed vegetable and beans and second extract of coconut milk and cook for 10 minutes (until the vegetables are cooked )
Adjust taste , add crushed pepper and first extract of coconut milk and mix until it has warmed through.
turn flame off and serve with appam ,bread etc.
Do not boil the curry after adding the thick coconut milk.

Irachi/Meat Curry

Ingredients:

1. Meat - 2 pounds (1 kg) you can use Beef,Mutton or Chicken with or without bones.
2. Onion - 1 sliced thin
3. Ginger - 1 inch piece chopped fine
4. Garlic - 10 cloves chopped fine
5. Coriander powder - 2 tbsp
6. chilly powder - 1 tbsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
8. Vinegar - 1 tbsp
9. Green chillies - 2 slit
10. Curry leaves - 2 springs
11. Potato - 2 peeled and cut into big pieces
12. Coconut milk - 2 cups
13. Crushed Meat masala - 1 tsp (cardamom,fennel,cinnamon,pepper,cloves)
14. Oil - 1 tbsp
15. salt - to taste

Method:

Wash and drain the meat and keep aside.

Heat oil in a nonstick pan and add the onion,ginger,garlic and crushed meat masala and saute until light brown.

Add in the coriander powder,chilly powder,turmeric powder and vinegar and stir fry on low flame until the raw smell is gone.

Add in the meat ,1 spring of curry leaves and salt to taste and mix well.

Cover and cook on medium flame until 3/4'th cooked.

Now add the dices potatoes and cover and cook until the meat and potatoes are cooked .

Pour in the coconut milk and stir well, add in the slit chillies and remaining curry leaves.

Bring to a simmer and turn the flame off.

This curry goes well with rice,appam,chappathi,idiappam,porotta,poori etc

Lamb Burger

Ingredients:

1. Ground lamb - 2 pounds.
2. Onion chopped fine - 1/2 of a small.
3. Worcestershire sauce -1 tbsp .
4. Soy sauce -2 tbsp.
5. Ground pepper - to taste.
6. garlic chopped fine- 1/2 tsp .
7. Spring onion - 1 stalk chopped

Method :
Mix all the ingredients well with your hands and form into patties.
make them larger and thinner than you want the finished product (they shrink and bulk up while cooking.
Heat a pan(high) no oil is required .
Add the patties and let it cook on high for 2 minutes then flip them over and cook for another 2 minutes or so. Don't overcook.
Serve on hamburger buns with Lettuce, tomatoes,Onions,Pickle ,ketchup and Mayo.

Calicut Mutton Biriyani / Malabar Mutton Biriyani

The term Biriyani is derived from the Persian word 'Birian'.In Farsi Birin means 'Fried before cooking'.The rice is fried in Ghee which gives it a nutty flavour.It is then boiled in water with spices until it is half cooked.The rice and meat are then layered and baked or cooked over coals .

An age old test for a good biriyani is that if you drop a hand full of Biriyani on a hard floor , no two grains of rice should be stuck to each other.

Calicut is very famous for its Biriyani and no celebration in the Malabar region is complete without this delicacy.

Ingredients:

1. Biriyani rice/Basmati rice - 5 cups
2. Goat meat with bones - 5 lbs (approx 2.5 kg)
3. Garlic - 2 pods (plus 1 pod for mutton marination)
4. Ginger - 3 inch piece (plus 1 inch for mutton marination)
5. Green chillies - 8 (plus 6 for mutton marination- depends on how spicy the chillies are)
6. Sour yogurt/curd - 1.5 cups
7. Onion - 4 (plus one to fry as garnish)
8. Tomatoes - 2
9. Lime - 1
10. Coriander leaves - 2 big bunches
11. Mint leaves - 1/2 of a small bunch
12. whole Masala - 5 cardamoms, 1 star anise, 1 big cinnamon piece, 6 cloves,2 bay leaves,1 tsp pepper
13. Powdered masala - crush together 1/2 tsp fennel,5 cardamoms,3 cloves,1/2 inch piece cinnamon,1/2 tsp pepper
14. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
15. Salt - to taste.
16. Ghee - 6 tbsp
17. Oil - 4 tsp
18. Cashews - hand full
19. Raisins - hand full

Step 1:

Marinating the meat - crush together 1 pod of garlic, 1 inch piece of ginger and 6 or 7 green chillies into a very coarse mix .Add in the sour curd ,turmeric powder and salt to this mixture.

Add the washed drained meat to the curd mixture and marinate in the refrigerator overnight or for few hours.

Step 2:

Cooking the marinated meat for 1 whistle in the pressure cooker.

Pressure cook the marinated meat with the juices for just 1 whistle (do not over cook ,since goat takes a long time to cook we are doing this pressure cooking process just to reduce the time).

Open the cooker and if there is too much juice boil on high flame for few minutes to reduce the gravy.There should still be 2 cups of gravy in the meat.

Step 3:

Grind together 2 pods of garlic , 3 inches of ginger and 7 to 8 green chillies to a coarse paste.
Slice the Onions finely.Slice the tomatoes finely.Wash and chop the cilantro/coriander leaves and mint leaves.

Heat the oil and half of the ghee in a large frying pan and add the ginger,garlic,green chilly paste and saute until raw smell is gone.

Add 4 sliced onions and stir fry until it is wilted.

Add in the sliced tomatoes and cook for few minutes.

Add 1/2 of the chopped coriander and mint leaves and mix well.

Add in the juice of 1/2 a lime and crushed masala.

Add in the half cooked mutton with the juices into this pan and cover and cook until mutton is cooked.This might take 35 minutes or so.

Towards the end if there is too much gravy , keep on high flame to reduce the gravy.

Add in the rest of the coriander and mint leaves.

Keep this gravy aside.

Step 4:

Soak the rice in water for 10 minutes and wash and drain.

Keep 10 cups of water in a large pan to boil( rice : water ration = 1:2)

Heat the rest of the ghee in a large frying pan and add in the whole spices.

Saute for a minute and add the drained rice and stir fry for few minutes until the rice is toasty (7 minutes).

When the rice is toasted add it into the boiling water , add salt to taste and cover and cook until the water is absorbed and rice is almost cooked.

Step 5:

In a big ovenproof dish add a layer of the goat masala followed by a layer of rice .

Alternate the goat masala and rice until it is used up .

Cover and bake in a 275 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Fry cashews and raisins in ghee and keep aside.

Fry 1 sliced onion until golden brown and drain on paper towel

Hard boil eggs and keep aside.

Garnish the baked biriyani with the fried cashews,raisins and friend onion.

Serve with boiled egg, salad, chutney ,pickle and pappad.

Mutton Curry /Goat Curry

Ingredients :

1. Mutton /Goat meat with bones - 2 lbs /1 kg
2. Onion - 2 sliced thin
3. Ginger - 1 inch piece chopped
4. Garlic - 1 whole pod peeled and chopped
   
5. Tomato - 1 sliced
6. curry leaves - 2 springs
7. Vinegar - 1 tsp
8. Coriander powder - 3 tbsp heaped
9. Chilly powder - 2 tsp
10. turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
11. Potato - 1 cubed (optional)
12. Oil - 2 tsp
13. meat masala crushed - 1 tsp(cardamom,cinnamon,nutmeg,star anise,fennel,cloves and pepper)

Note :The spices shown in the photo are not in the correct proportions

Preparing the Goat meat:
Goat meat sometimes has a gamey flavour depending on the age and upbringing of the animal. To get rid of this soak the meat in yogurt/curd for an hour and then wash and drain it. If you do not have curd you could use vinegar and turmeric to wash the meat.

Method:
Heat oil in a pan and add in the sliced onions , ginger, garlic and salt and saute until light brown.
Add the crushed meat masala and saute.
Add in the coriander powder,chilly powder and turmeric powder and lower the flame.
Saute it on low flame for few minutes until the raw smell is gone.
Add the sliced tomatoes and curry leaves saute.



When the tomatoes are cooked Add in the goat meat and mix well.
Cover and cook for 45 minutes on a medium flame ,stirring occasionally.
Do not add water unless the dish turns dry - if required add minimal water as necessary to get the meat cooked.


If you are adding potatoes it can be added after the meat is 3/4'th cooked.
Taste for seasonings and add more salt or vinegar as required.
If the tomatoes are sour you might not need to add vinegar.
Cover and cook on low flame for an additional 30 minutes or more until the meat is cooked well.


Serve hot with rice,appam,chappathi,puttu,poori or bread.
The curry tastes even better the next day after the flavours blend.