Hyderabadi Mutton

Hyderabad, the land of the Nizams has the flavour of Royal Gharana in its cuisine. All the exquisite flavours thus incorporated into the various dishes originating from this part of India mirror the glamour of the Nawabs. This dish is no exception either. The mutton is most beautifully cooked with the choicest of spices resulting in an outstanding flavour and incomparable texture. Obviously you don’t have to go by my words only, you just have to try it out yourselves. This region adopts ‘Dum’ cooking in most of the dishes including Biryani. ‘Dum’ means steam, the food is cooked in its steam. Here I have pressure cooked the mutton instead of slowly simmering it following Sanjeev Kapoor’s way of cooking this dish.

Hyderabadi Mutton

You all know by now that we are a mutton loving family which you can say is a character trait of the Bongs beside their love for fish. But in the recent years we have cut down much on our consumption of mutton for health reasons. These exotic recipes come to life only on those special occasions or festivities like Holi in this case. It is a ritual among most Bengalis to make a mutton dish on Holi, we follow it too. You can match this striking dish with saffron pulao, jeera rice, peas pulao, biryani or naans if you are setting up a party table. Plain steamed rice would also pair up perfectly well with this in a private lunch with family.

 

Hyderbadi Mutton

Here’s the way to make it:
  

Ingredients:
 

• 1 kg mutton preferably raan
• 4 hard boiled eggs
• 4 onions finely chopped
• 1 inch ginger
• 8-9 cloves of garlic
• 2 red tomatoes chopped
• ½ cup freshly grated coconut
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder
• 1 tsp saunf/mouri/fennel seeds
• 1 tsp dhania/coriander seeds
• 1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
• 5-6 green cardamoms
• 2 sticks of cinnamon(1 inch each)
• 5-6 cloves
• 1 black cardamom
• 2 tsp poppy seeds
• 2 green chilies
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Some chopped coriander leaves
• Salt and sugar to taste
• 1 tablespoon ghee
• White oil as per requirement

Process:
 

Step 1:

Heat ghee and oil together in a pressure cooker and splutter the whole garam masalas. Add the chopped onions and fry golden. Add the ginger garlic paste, sauté. Now add the mutton. Saute on high heat until it is sealed and acquires a brownish colour. Add salt, turmeric, 1 big cup of water and pressure cook for 20 minutes.

Step 2:

In a separate kadai or wok heat a little oil and splutter cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds. Add the chopped tomatoes, sauté. Add red chili powder. When the tomatoes are pulpy remove from heat and let cool.

Step 3:

In the meanwhile soak poppy seeds and green chilies in a little water in the container of your electric mixer grinder.

Step 4:
 

Add the sautéed tomatoes with the spices into the container with poppy seeds. Put a little sugar and make a smooth paste of the whole thing.

Step 5:
 

Open the lid of the pressure cooker and add the paste. Mix with the mutton. Check whether the mutton is fully cooked. If not, pressure cook for another five to ten minutes. After the meat is perfectly done, add the grated coconut. Simmer for two to three minutes.

 

Hyderabadi Mutton

Step 6:

Now add lemon juice. Serve garnished with boiled egg slices on top and chopped coriander leaves.