This is a comforting curry for those cold nights where you want to just tuck into some good food and reminisce about the days when your mum used to cook these delightful curries. It requires no marinating and tastes even better the next day when the flavors have had a chance to sink in @sarchakra
PREP TIME: 10 mins
COOK TIME: 50 mins
YIELDS: 5
Ingredients
- Goat meat 2 lb, cut into small pieces
- Oil 2 tbsp
- Ghee 2 tbsp
- Onion 2, large, paste
- Potatoes 3, halved
- Fried onions 3 tbsp
- Cloves 5
- Green cardamom 2
- Black cardamom 1 large
- Peppercorns 8-10
- Cinnamon 2 inches
- Cumin powder 2 tsp
- Coriander powder 1 tbsp
- Salt
- Turmeric 1 tbsp
- Red chili powder 1 tbsp
- Kashmiri chili powder 1 tbsp
- Yogurt 3 tbsp
- Green chilies 4, whole
Method
- Gently pat dry goat meat with paper towels. Keep aside.
- In a mortar and pestle crush the whole spices: green cardamom, black cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns.
- Heat oil and ghee. Add the crushed whole spices. Cook for a few seconds. Then add the onion paste. Sauté for a couple of minutes till translucent. Add ginger and garlic paste. Fry till the raw smell goes.
- Add the dry spices: turmeric, red chili powder, Kashmiri chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and fried onions. Fry the masala for a few minutes till the oil starts to release from the sides.
- Pour in whipped yogurt. Continue to stir on high heat.
- Add the goat meat. Keep stirring and cooking the masala. Keep the flame low to medium at this point. The more you fry or ‘Bhuna’ the masala the tastier the curry will be. Let the masala start to release the oil.
- Add the cubed potatoes and green chilies. Sauté the masala till the potatoes are coated with the masala mixture.
- Add 3 cups of hot water. Season with salt and close the pressure cooker. Cook for 7-8 whistles. Let the pressure release by itself.
Notes
How many whistles you will need to cook the meat really depends on the pressure cooker you have. Mine is the old fashioned Prestige Pressure Cooker from India I bought years ago that still does its job and I use this pressure cooker a lot. I have two of them, one for vegetarian dishes and one for non vegetarian dishes. I use them both almost everyday for something or the other.
This curry has a thin gravy. If you like thicker ones, you can let it evaporate a bit after the pressure releases till desired consistency. For myself, I like the thinner consistency of this curry. It will thicken a bit as you rest it and even more the next day.
The marbled thin layers of fat in the meat makes for a delicious curry. Don’t discard those. They add a ton of flavor.
You can of course increase the amount of oil or ghee you use to make it a richer version or if you are cooking for a special occasion. For daily cooking however, I find there is no need to have too much oil in curries especially since the taste really comes from the richness and quality of the meat which you don’t want to hide under the spices.
Hot water is essential because you do not want to lower the temperature of the meat and spices once you fry it.
Take your time with the curry. Patience and slow-cooking ensures that the spices are cooked and the flavors are extracted from the spices into the curry. Cooked properly, it is only natural that some oil floats on top of the curry. You will always hear the phrase ‘cook till the oil separates’ in many Indian curries. When the water evaporates it raises the temperature of the spice mix and releases the flavors. This ensures the spices are cooked properly so you can go to the next stage of the recipe. It is also important to keep the temperature at medium so the spices do not burn.
As you put in one spice after the other, you should be able to smell each of them. Keep your sense of smell alert and you’ll know when the curry is ready.
sarchakra 