Mutton Chukka (dry) (Sig)

Ingredients:

2lb goat meat, cleaned and cut into small pieces
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
6 red chilies
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seeds
1” cinnamon stick
10 cloves Garlic
2 tbsp thinly sliced ginger pieces
1 tsp oil
Salt to taste
Plenty of curry leaves

Method:

Dry roast the spices and grind to a smooth powder. Heat the oil in the same pan and sauté the ginger and garlic. Grind this to a paste with 1tbsp water. Marinate the mutton pieces with salt, turmeric powder, powdered spices and the ginger-garlic paste. Let it marinate for 30 minutes.

Place the marinated mutton in a pressure cooker. Close the cooker and cook for about 6 minutes after the first whistle (after it comes to full pressure) on medium heat. Let it cool naturally. No need to add water, as the meat would give out plenty of liquid during the cooking process.

When the pressure cooker is cool enough to handle, open it. Since goat is very fatty, the liquid in the cooker will have plenty of oil floating in it. We don’t need to use extra oil to fry the mutton. Carefully pour the liquid from the pan into a large sauté pan. Heat this liquid on high heat till most of the water evaporates and only the oil remains. If there isn’t enough fat in the pan, you can always add a tbsp oil into the pan at this point.

Add the cooked mutton pieces along with half of the curry leaves into the pan. Sauté till all the liquid is gone and the mutton pieces are browned on all sides. Stir in the remaining curry leaves and remove from the heat.

As with most of my spicy dry dishes, I recommend this with a cold beer. It is best with rice and a really light gravy, like daal.