MALABAR MUTTON STEW

Ingredients:

500gm mutton (with bone or without bone), 150gm potatoes, 2 green chillies (slit), 2 inch of ginger (julienned), 100ml coconut oil, 10-15 curry leaves, 100gm onion, 1tbsp pepper corn, 1 coconut (grated), 1 bay leaf, 1 star anise, 1 cinnamon, 1/2 tsp Kerala garam masala Pre-preparation: Dry roast all the ingredients mentioned for garam masala and grind to a fine powder. Extract milk twice, thick and thin, by grinding the grated coconut.

Method:

Cook the mutton along with whole spices, slit green chillies, sliced onions, cubes of potatoes, ginger, thin coconut milk and salt as needed in a clay pot till the mutton and potatoes become soft. Then simmer it down.

In a pan, heat coconut oil, add curry leaves and then add the garam masala. Remove the pan from the heat before the masala burns and add it to the simmered broth.

Add the thick coconut milk and turn down the flame. Mix it well and allow it to rest at the same level of heat. Serve it hot, preferably with appams.

Health Benefits: “Mutton stew is a broth in which succulent pieces of mutton and potatoes are simmered in delicate southern flavours of coconut milk, crushed ginger, curry leaves and spices. Most of Kerala’s food is cooked in clay pots due to its gentle, slow-heating properties. This method of cooking also preserves the nutrition inherent in any food. Clay, being alkaline in nature, helps in neutralising the potential hydrogen balance of the food by interacting with the acid present in the food,” says chef Sheik Mohideen.