Sweet 'n' Savoury: Mutton Saundha-Amma's Recipe

Being born in a Punjabi family people normally perceive me as a hardcore Non-vegetarian. Ironically the truth is that we seldom have non-veg dishes cooked in our kitchen. A chicken dish being cooked at home would suggest that someone is invited for dinner. I guess this is because my parents were never too fond of chicken, leave alone red meat. As a result I had never tasted a good mutton dish in my life.

When I go married and went to Allahabad for the first time, I had the most amazing Mutton Biryani made by Amma (Mother-in-law). I could'nt believe that the meat was so well done that it just melted in my mouth. It was cooked with so much perfection and flavours.

On my last visit to Allahabad I took down the recipe of this yet another amazing mutton dish made by Amma. Basically I took it for Vishal to experiment because a few last horrid chewy attempts demoralized him and made him stay away from venturing into the red meat category.

I followed the recipe to the 'T', though Amma is such a freelancer when it comes to food, she has no fixed recipes and just cooks with lots of love. Probably that what we get to taste everytime!

This recipe is very simple with no marination time. The most amazing thing is that it is meant to be done in flat 16 min mark and what you get is an extremely well cooked and yummy mutton dish.

Ingredients:

1/2 kg mutton (Ideally Raan and chops)
2-3 chopped onions
1 1/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 dried red chillies(seeds removed)
1 1/2 tsp jeera
4 cloves
2 badi elaichi
4 choti elaichi
2-3 bay leaves
1 inch piece of cinnamon
salt to taste
3 tbsp mustard oil
2 peeled and halved potatoes

Procedure:

Take a pressure cooker and put washed mutton pieces, chopped onions, ginger garlic paste, all the whole spices, salt and mustard oil. Add 1/2 cup

water and close the lid. After the first whistle lower the flame and let the mutton cook for 8 mins.

Open the lid and let the water dry. Add potatoes and 1 cup of water and close the lid again. After the first whistle lower the flame and cook for another 8 mins or till the mutton is done.