Mutton delicacies

SHORSHE MANGSHO

Ingredients

1 kg goat meat (cut in pieces)

½ kg yoghurt, whisked

½ cup oil

4 cardamom pods, gently cracked 

5cm long cinnamon sticks

10 cloves, 1 tsp black pepper 

6 dry red chillies

1 cup onions, chopped 

2 tsp ginger paste

4 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp red chilli powder

½ cup yellow mustard paste

10 green chillies slit

2 cups hot water

4 tsp salt

½ cup cilantro, chopped

Method

Rub the meat with yoghurt and leave it to marinate in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight. Return to room temperature before cooking it. Leave the salt until later as it tends to draw out the meat juices. Next, heat oil in a wok and toss in the cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, pounded black pepper, and dry red chillies. Sauté for a few seconds. Put in the onions and sauté gently for 10 minutes, until softened and lightly coloured. Fold in the ginger, garlic, red chilli powder, black pepper, and 2 tablespoons of water. Stir vigorously until fragrant.

Now add in the meat and stir over a high flame to seal in the juices. Once the meat is browned all over, lower the flame and simmer gently. Stir in the mustard and green chilli and cook for 5 minutes. Add hot water and salt. Maintain a gentle simmer for 40 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro, cover with a lid and take off the flame. Serve after 5 minutes.

PANCH PHORON MANGSHO

This recipe calls for a modest use of local spices, flavoured with the famous Bengali spice mixture called panch phoron. Onion once introduced into Bengali cuisine, took the dominant position of the most used vegetable. Its omnipresence like the later introduced gorom moshla, is taken for granted in preparing all meat dishes.

Ingredients

1 kg goat meat cut into 15 pieces

½ cup mustard Oil

1 tbsp ghee

4 red onions chopped

1 tsp panch phoron

2 tsp red chilli powder

5 white onions quartered

2 ½ tsp salt

2 tsp lemon juice

Method

Heat oil and ghee in a wok and add the red onions. Sauté until they turn golden. Using a slotted spoon, strain out the onions (beresta). Drain on absorbent paper towels and set aside.

Toss in the panch phoron to the residual oil and sauté for a moment. As soon as it stops spluttering, add the red chilli diluted in 1 tablespoon of water. Next add the beresta, meat, water and salt. Cover the wok and cook until the meat is tender, stirring occasionally.

By the time the fat separates from the gravy, chuck in the quartered white onions, cover again and cook for 5 minutes. Take off the flame, and drizzle lemon juice on top.

MORICH MANGSHO

The chilli used in this recipe is comparable to the less pungent Kashmiri paprika; it is grown in Hathazari (Chittagong). Serve Morich Mangso with luchi, the much loved deep fried flatbread of Bengal.

Ingredients

1 kg goat meat, cut into 10 pieces 

2 tsp salt

1 cup ghee

30 'Hathazari' dry red chillies

Method

Place the meat pieces in a mixing bowl. Dust them with salt and cover the bowl tightly. Keep refrigerated overnight. Bring back to room temperature before cooking. Soak 25 red chillies in warm water. Let it stand covered overnight. Before cooking, tip off the water and break off the chilli-stems.

Heat ghee in a wok. Toss in 5 dry red chillies. Sauté for few moments. Add in the meat (along with the juices that have collected) and the soaked red chillies. Cook until all the moisture evaporates and only the ghee remains.

KHARA MOSHLAR KORMA

Ingredients

1 kg goat meat, (from leg pieces)

1 cup ghee

5 black cardamoms, cracked

10 green cardamoms, cracked 

10 cloves

1 tsp nigella (kalojira)

2 bay leaves (tejpata)

1 cup onions sliced

1 cup yoghurt

2 tsp salt

2 tsp red chilli powder

10 dry red chilli, 1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp ginger, julienne

100g onion, peeled

50g garlic, peeled

25g green chilli, end slit

2 cups water

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp cilantro leaves 

Method

Heat ghee in a pan and add black cardamoms, green cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves, and nigella. Next, add sliced onions and cook until golden. Add in the meat and sauté for 2 minutes. Add yoghurt, cumin seeds, ginger, and water and cook until meat is tender. Add the whole onions, garlic, green chillies and lower the heat, stirring occasionally until onions are tender. Mix in the lemon juice and cilantro and serve hot.

Photo: Collected