Laal maas

Mathania chillies in a yoghurt sauce, hot enough to have covered the smell of game.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

• 1 kg mutton on the bone, in large pieces
• 20 dried Mathania chillies, or Kashmiri chillies
• 300 ml plain yoghurt
• 20 cloves garlic
• 3 onions, sliced
• 6 tablespoons ghee
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 4 black cardamom pods
• 8 cloves
• a 5 cm stick of cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 300 ml water

Method

1. MATHANIA CHILLIES IN A YOGHURT SAUCE, HOT ENOUGH TO HAVE COVERED THE SMELL OF GAME. Its article gives the composition -- A MUTTON OR GAME CURRY PREPARED IN A SAUCE OF YOGURT AND HOT SPICES SUCH AS RED MATHANIA CHILLIES, VERY HOT AND RICH IN GARLIC -- and then quotes the chef Bulai Swain on why the heat is there at all: LAAL MAANS WAS MADE WITH WILD GAME MEAT (JUNGLI MAANS), SUCH AS BOAR OR DEER AND CHILLIES WERE USED TO VEIL THE GAMY ODOUR OF THE MEAT. WHILE THE SPICY FLAVOUR IS REMAINED INTACT NOW, THE MEAT USED IS TENDER MUTTON. The heat is a solution to a problem the dish no longer has, and it stayed.
2. AND THE RED IS THE CHILLI, NOT TOMATO OR PAPRIKA. Its etymology section says so: LAAL MEANS RED, REFERRING TO THE FIERY RED COLOUR OF THE DISH, WHICH COMES FROM THE VIBRANT SPICES LIKE MATHANIA CHILLIES. There is no tomato in this recipe at all.
3. SOAK THE CHILLIES AND GRIND THEM TO A PASTE. Twenty dried chillies in hot water for half an hour, stalks and most seeds out, blended with a little of the soaking water. Mathania is a Rajasthani chilli that is red and bright rather than brutal; Kashmiri is the nearest easy substitute.
4. TWENTY CLOVES OF GARLIC IS NOT A MISPRINT. The article's phrase is RICH IN GARLIC and it belongs in the same sentence as the chillies. Half crushed to a paste, half left whole to go soft in the gravy.
5. BROWN THE MEAT HARD IN THE GHEE, THEN THE ONIONS. This is a dark, oily curry by design and the browning is where that starts.
6. THE YOGHURT GOES IN OFF THE HEAT, BEATEN, A LITTLE AT A TIME. Three hundred millilitres added in one go to a hot pan will split. Beaten smooth and stirred in spoonful by spoonful with the pan off the flame, it holds.
7. THEN THE CHILLI PASTE, AND IT COOKS UNTIL THE GHEE SEPARATES. Twenty minutes of stirring over a medium heat. When a rim of red fat stands at the edge of the pan, the paste is cooked and the rawness has gone.
8. AN HOUR AND A HALF COVERED, AND IT IS EATEN WITH BREAD. Its article gives both: chapatis of wheat USUALLY EATEN IN SUMMERS, or of BAJRA, A MILLET GROWN IN RAJASTHAN AND EATEN IN THE WINTER MONTHS. It also notes the gravy MAY BE THICK OR LIQUID, so reduce it to suit yourself.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes