ABEDA'S NIHARI

Cooking mutton can sometimes seem like a pain. After an hour of cooking, you often find the meat still rubbery and uncooked. Then, you try showing the whole thing into a pressure cooker and sometimes, even that doesn't work. The key is selecting the right mutton - light pink, firm, fine-grained, velvety and most importantly, moist. Then, choose a cut of mutton depending on how you plan to cook it. For quick-cooking, choose chops or cutlets. For slow-cooking, the shoulder and shank are good. Nihari is slow-cooked mutton shanks in rich masalas. On the streets of Lucknow and
Agra, it is a simple breakfast. It's slow-cooked all night and served just as the sun rises.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

1 kg mutton (with bones)
3 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp flour
1 small piece dry ginger
2 small white cardamomas
2 bay leaves & 1 cinnnamon stick
2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp fennel seeds, powdered
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 pinches of nutmeg (jaiphal)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 small piece black salt
1 tbsp garlic paste & 1 tbsp ginger paste
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
1/2 cup ghee or cooking oil
Salt to taste

Garnish

1 medium onion, sliced and fried
3 green chillies, sliced

Hint: 15 mins; Serves 3; hot pav

METHOD

In a pot, heat the ghee or cooking oil.

When it is hot, add in the sliced onions. On medium heat, fry the onions till golden-brown. Remove and cool the onions on a paper tissue. Crush the onions and keep aside.

In the same oil/ghee, fry the mutton, garam masala, yoghurt, ginger paste, garlic paste, crushed fried onions, salt, red chilli powder, bay leaves, cinnamon and turmeric powder. Stir continuously till the oild separates. Then add in the nutmeg, cardamoms, aniseeds and black salt and cook them. Pour enough water to cover the meat. Cook the meal on a low flame for two hours or till it is tender. Once the meal is tender, add flour and cook on low heat for about another ten minutes.

Garnish with fried onions, freshly chopped coriander leaves, green chillies and ginger strips.

EGG FRIED MUTTON CHOPS

The Parsis do it and the Dawoodi Bohras do it. And they did it well before Kentucky fried chicken crowed one early morning in the 30s. Frying meat coated with egg batter is a tradition that is revered and relished.

At my friend Pesi's home, his mom would pick out pieces from the previous night's Jardaloo ma Ghosht (apricot meat stew), crumb them, dip them in egg batter and deep-fry them for the next meal. So you have the succulent marination of last night's masalas, but freshly and cripsly fried for another meal. To me, that idea is just genius. The same applies to Egg Fried Mutton chops. Instead of leftover pieces of meat, you choose luscious ribs, cook them and egg fry them.
  
RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

The mutton

1 kg mutton ribs
2 eggs
1 cup flour
2 tbsp plain yoghurt
250 ml whole milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
1/2 litre water

The Potli

1/4 tsp baking powder
1-inch ginger, sliced
2-inch cinnamon stick
1 tbsp aniseeds, powdered

Garnish

Sliced onions
Slices of lemon
Mint leaves

Hint:  60mins; Serves 6; onions and lemon

METHOD

Wash mutton ribs and dry them well.

Marinate the ribs in salt and lemon juice for half an hour. Take ginger, cinnamon and aniseeds in a clean white cloth. Tie the cloth and make a potli (small bundle).

In a pot, heat milk and half a litre of water. Then add the meat and soak in the potli.

Cook until the mutton is tender.

Drain once tender. Squeeze the spice bundle to extract maximum flavour and discard.Reserve the stock.

In a bowl, sieve the  flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the yoghurt and pour stock enough to make a batter of thick consistency in another bowl, beat the eggs and keep aside.

For frying, heat oil in a pan. Dip the mutton pieces first in the batter, then in the beaten eggs. Deep-fry until golden-brown.

Serve hot.

MUTTON DO PIAZA


The city of mumbai was quieter in the 60s and 70s. On dining-out weekends, our parents took us to place like Gaylord near Brabourne Stadium, Horse Shoe at Colaba Causeway, Berry's at Churchgate, Gulmarg and Kwality's at Kemps Corner andTalk- of-the-Town on Marine Drive. They all served, among other things, Indian cuisine, but the dishes they served have slowly vanished. Mutton Do Piaza is one of them. It is mutton cooked with two kinds of onions. The dish arrives at your table with chunky pieces of meat cooked in thick onion gravy with chunkier pieces of soft, translucent whole onion.

RECIPE
INGREDIENTS

500 gm mutton
500 gm onions, chopped
2 tbsp ghee or oil
1 cup plain yoghurt, beaten
1 tsp garlic, chopped
2 bay leaves
4 green cardomoms
2-inch cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1 tsp dry ginger powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves for garnish

Hint: 15 mins; Serves 3; hot pav

METHOD

In a pan, heat ghee or oil. Add the cumin seeds, bay leaves, cinnamon stick and green cardamoms and fry for a minute.

Then, add the chopped onions and garlic.

Cook the onions till they turn golden-brown. In a bowl, lightly beat the yoghurt.

Once the onions are golden-brown, add the lightly beaten yoghurt, salt, red chilli powder, garam masala, coriander powder and dry ginger powder.

Fry the masalas till they are fragrant and well-cooked, then add the mutton pieces.

Mix the mutton and the masalas well.

Cook till the mutton is tender. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Mutton Do Piaza is ready to serve.