I also started a new job today in a nice little café on Loch Earn. It's just a temporary job until the proper new job starts - I hope I'll have official news on that soon and will be able to share it - but I'll be making yummy soups and baking cakes 'til my heart's content for the next couple of months.
Mutton is becoming more easily available, so do try it, if not just use lamb - cubed shoulder would be my choice for this recipe. Browsing through a book of Keralan recipes, I came across a couple of suitable ones. I couldn't make either by the book, one because it was cooked in a pressure cooker and the other because I couldn't be bothered to grind my own fresh garam masala! I ended up mixing the 2 recipes, using a mixture of whole cloves, cinnamon and cardamom instead of the garam masala, as the flavours would come out during longer cooking. These fragrant spices, along with the flavour of curry leaves (buy a pack from an asian shop and freeze them) never fail to cheer me up. This is a slightly time consuming recipe to prepare, but easy to make once you are ready and if you can I implore you to use whole spices and grind them fresh, if not just make sure ready ground spices are fresh and still fragrant.
Malabar Mutton Curry
500g stewing mutton or lamb shoulder, cubed (leave a little fat for flavour)
1tsp black peppercorns
1tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 medium onions, sliced
10 fresh curry leaves
2 green chillies finely chopped (go on, be a devil and leave the seeds in!)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2cm piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
1/2 tsp hot chilli powder
3 cloves
3 cardamom pods
10cm cinnamon stick
1 tin coconut milk
oil
salt
If using whole spices, toast the peppercorns, coriander seeds and cumin in a dry pan and grind them. Heat the oil until hot in a heavy based pot and brown the mutton cubes in a couple of batches. Set aside and fry the onions slowly over a low heat in the same oil until very soft, but not browned, turn up the heat a little and add the curry leaves, stirring until they become fragrant then add the garlic, ginger, and fresh chillies and fry another minute or two. Add the ground spices, the whole ones and stir until you catch the aromas, then add the mutton and some salt.
Don't shake the coconut milk before you open it, but scrape off any thick stuff from the top and reserve along with about half the tin. Add the other half to the pot along with half a tin of water (if you want to go the whole authentic hog and and make your own coconut milk, grate a coconut, blend with 1 cup of warm water, strain giving the first extract, and repeat with 2 cups of water, the second extract, add this now reserving the first until later). Bring to the boil cover and simmer gently until the meat is tender, about 45mins to an hour for lamb and 1 1/2 to 2 hours for mutton. Add the thick coconut milk, check the seasoning, heat through and serve with basmati rice.
