This recipe comes courtesy of Gavin and Fiona Barlow in Yorkshire. It’s a slow cooked curry for maximum depth of flavour. Start it one (or two) days before you want to serve it.
Tolsta Chaolais Mutton Curry
This recipe starts with a marinade in which the meat should be left overnight
Ingredients
For the marinade:
- 20g grated fresh ginger
- 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 3 tbspns greek yogurt (or natural yogurt)
- 1/2 tspn turmeric
- 6 mutton shanks or equivalent in neck chops
For the curry sauce:
- 300g fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 100g cashew nuts
- 100ml vegetable oil
- 100ml water
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 20g grated fresh ginger
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 6 cloves
- seeds from 6 green cardamom pods
- 1/2 tspn ground mace
- 1 tspn salt
- 1 tbspn ground coriander
- 1 tbspn Kashmiri chilli powder
- 1 tspn turmeric
- 2 tspns garam masala
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
For the marinade:
- Mix all the ingredients together and massage into the mutton. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight
For the curry sauce:
- Place the tomatoes and cashew nuts in a pan, cover with water and simmer for 5 mins. Leave to cool and then blitz to a smooth paste
- Heat the oil in a large oven proof casserole dish and add the cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom seeds and mace and gently fry for 1 minute
- Add the onion and salt and fry until lightly browned
- Add the water
- Add the coriander, chilli powder, turneris, garam masala, ginger and garlic. Stir to combine
- Add the mutton and all the marinade turning the meat to brown it where possible
- Add the tomato and nut paste and the bay leaves
- Bring to a simmer, put on the lid and place in the oven (Aga simmering oven or conventional 130 degrees) for 4 - 6 hours until the mutton is completely tender
- Check the liquid from time to time and add water if necessary
Notes
This curry can be served as soon as the meat is tender, or it can be cooled and the meat taken off the bones. If cooling, blitz the sauce, add the meat and reheat.