A good friend, Nilesh, found out I was cataloguing my mother’s recipes and reminded me of this dish from about 20 years ago that he had had at home. He asked me to get the recipe so he could replicate it at home and enjoy the dish and old memories.
This is a classic Hyderabadi dish that is slowly disappearing. It is never seen in restaurants and very occasionally in the old houses of Nawabi culture. This dish plays with tomatoes, essential in Mughal and Nawabi cuisine. In Andhra Pradesh, souring agents were important. The usual main suspects are tamarind, but tomatoes and sour leaves like rosella (gongura) and lime are also important. In this dish, the tomato is the highlight, adding a mild tartness that is perfect for the hot weather.
This dish is all about slow cooking. The time is needed for the flavours to merge and flavour the meat. The multiple steps of cooking the dish down and adding ingredients is essential, and although most folks use a pressure cooker to get the same dish, the depth of flavour will always be missing.
This is a family recipe, simple and elegant. The meat is fork-tender, and the tomatoes have been cooked down and caramelised into a thick sauce that clings to the meat heavily. The flavours is intense and tart-sweet, and the spices are in perfect balance. This is an unusual dish and one that needs to be brought back into the mainstream.
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Ingredients:
1/2 cup oil
2 onions, diced
1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
1 teaspoon chilli powder, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 lb mutton, with bone
2-4 cups water
1/2 lb tomatoes, finely diced
Salt, to taste
3 tablespoons cilantro, minced + to garnish
Heat the oil in a pot and add the onions. Fry on medium-low heat until the onions are lightly golden, about 4-5 minutes. Add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for 1 minute until the ginger is no longer raw. Add the chilli and turmeric and give the contents a quick stir.
Add the meat and fry for 20 minutes until the meat is seared and the spices have coated the meat well. The oils should have released and pool in the pot frying the spices and meat.
Add the water and bring to a simmer. You can either simmer the meat on the stove for 75 minutes or pressure cook it for 5 whistles or Instapot cook the meat on the meat setting plus 10 minutes. You want the meat to be very soft and fork tender.
Add the tomatoes, salt and cilantro. Mix in well and cook for 20-25 minutes on a medium-low flame until the tomatoes are completely broken down and the oils have released from the sauce. The oils should be frying the tomato o sauce and meat again. The curry is thick with the sauce clinging to the meat heavily. Taste for salt and adjust if needed.
Serve hot garnished with cilantro and with rice.
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