Mysore mutton

This dish has travelled and adapted to local flavours. It hails from the city of Mysore in Karnataka. The dish has migrated to Singapore and has been slightly adapted to take on soy sauce to make the flavour profile local. The soy sauce adds a subtle umami to the dish. Numerous dishes are adapted to local cuisines when they travel with immigrants. As the immigrants settle into a new culture, they adopt local ingredients and adjust their dishes to these local flavours. This is one of those dishes.

I was surprised by how simple this dish is to make. Yes, it takes time, but the steps are few, and the dish needs little attention. In this dish, the meat is slowly cooked and caramelized over time, with a rich surface loaded with flavour. This is a simple recipe, but it is very satisfying.

The meat is very tender, and the spices and soy sauce have caramelized onto the meat. It is a dry dish served with parathas, chapattis or the local aki roti.

This is a thin volume of recipes from Singapore. The recipes are the perfect image of the city with flavours from the Malay, Chinese and Indian communities. The recipes always turn out authentic, and the flavours pop, like this dish.

For more recipes from this cookbook, click here. 

Ingredients:

1 lb lean boneless mutton

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon mint, minced

2 teaspoon chilli powder, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon light soy sauce

2 cups water

2 tablespoons ghee

Pound the garlic, mint, chilli powder, cumin, turmeric, vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce until you have a smooth paste. Add it to the meat and massage it well—Marinate for 30 minutes or overnight.

Heat the ghee in a pot. Add the meat and cook on very low heat, stirring it occasionally. Add the water and simmer. Cook for about 75 minutes until the meat is tender and caramelized on all sides. The water should completely evaporate, and the ghee should have pooled in bubbles and fried the meat evenly.

Serve hot with parathas or rice.