Sunday, 19 August 2007

Kerela Mutton Curry made Punjabi style

Ha! What did you think... it was finger lickin' good. You will not believe if I tell you what a spoilt brat I was at home with mom around... never cooked... except ONCE. Crazy girl. Hostel life was bliss, didn't even eat what the cook made. Was too busy doing other things, wonder how I survived without eats, maybe weekends at home should be given their due for I was decently fed then. Moved to Bombay and found a bai, who loved to clean my house to perfection and make food atleast edible, was enough, I was too busy travelling and spending my evenings in cafes to bother. Moved to South Africa, God sent African cook was handed a desi cook book and I swear by her cooking. She made Naan, paratha, south indian, north indian, any indian dish... as long as I provided the ingredients in the cupboard and fridge.
Now in the USA, age 32, cooking food nearly thrice a week is an achievement of no short a magnitude. So today i cooked mutton for the first time in my life. I know its crazy to admit, first time. Ok So i am pampered. And maybe a lil crazy to never have felt like cooking. But eating out, getting ready khana and that too good khana was never too tough. But now i like to cook. Suddenly have taken a liking to it. And I realised my blog cannot miss out my new interest and then maybe I need to start compiling anything special I made and that turned out extra special. This is not a cooking blog though... I am far from it.
I cook with my gut feel. Ok to think that someone who has never made mutton before wants to cook with her gut feel is no good a model to follow. But then, I have tasted many cuisines, seen my friends cook, my mom cook and my bai cook. And not to forget the desi coooking shows,LOL. And then somehow I believe in my ability to do anything perfect as long as i think I want to do it.
So there it goes, I picked up a recipe from the web. I just knew it has to be extremely masaledar. Thick rich tomato gravy and I now the chettinaad and kerela style would suit what i want. So googled, and found a kerela style recipe that sounded close to what i wanted to taste. The Chettinaad needed stuff i didn't have ready. So a Kerela mutton gravy, added with punjabi gut feel of adding aloo, fennel and dahi to the dish made a delectable concoction... finger lickin good. I am extremely proud of myself. The funny part is I never follow recipes to the T. I never measure my masalas the way the recipes recommend, always add my elements to it and I swear its better that way.
The recipe is too simple to sound good but it tastes very good. Trust me. Can be found here and don't forget to read Elizabeth and My comments on it to get the perfect taste. I gave the recipe a 3 star because it became a 5 star only post my expert handling of additional ingredients :)). Aloo needs to be added , i forgot to mention that in the comments :) Am talking like Sanjeev Kapoor now.
See, cooking is not that tough. No wonder house wives love it... it's the best past time at home and the best topic to discuss in a kitty party. If I can write about it for the the last 10 minutes typing away endless, imagine the immense potential of discussion.

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