One of the most popular dish of royals of Rajasthan is their mutton curry, more popularly known as Laal Maas (translated exactly as Red Meat). Its called so by the bright red color its gravy holds which it gets from sharp and bright coloured dried red chillies of Rajasthan.

It’s a very simple recipe with very few ingredients as any traditional recipe would be. The result is yet mouthwatering!

Instead of using red chili powder, traditionally dried red chillies are soaked and pressed into a paste to add the sharpness, heat and more importantly the bright red color to gravy. Gravy for this recipe is thick not watery. It gets that consistency from onions and chilli paste. Note that there are no tomatoes used in traditional recipe and all redness in curry comes from red chillies. If you can get Rajasthani chilies that would be best for this recipe as they give right amount of color without giving too much heat to the dish. If you can’t find dried red chillies, you can use dried chillies powders too ( approx 2 tbsp for 1 kg mutton).

Fat used to cook laal Maas is essentially Ghee and mustard oil. You can use other oils like sunflower or ground nut oil but taste would not be the same. Mutton used is goat meat, with bones, I would stress on using meat with bones as most of the flavor and boneless mutton would lack all the flavours.

RECIPE:

INGREDIENTS:

• Mutton (with bones): 1kg
• Curd: 250gms
• Onion (sliced): 4
• Garlic and ginger paste: 3 tbsp
• Dried Red chillies (soaked and grinder to paste): 15
• Turmeric: 1 tbsp
• Coriander powder: 2tbsp
• Salt: 2 tbsp
• Ghee: 4-5 tbsp
• Mustard oil: 2 tbsp
• Green coriander leaves: few to garnish
• Whole spices:
  • Black cardamom: 1
  • Green cardamom: 3
  • Clove: 3
  • Black pepper: 7
  • Bay leaf: 1
  • Caraway seeds (shahi jeera): 1 tsp

METHOD:

• Clean mutton, apply ginger garlic paste and leave for few hours in fridge.
• Heat a thick bottom skillet and add ghee
• Add whole spices clove, black pepper, green cardamom, black cardamom, bay leaf and caraway seeds.
• Add sliced onions and cook for 2 mins. Add mutton and cook for 5-8 mins.
• Add chilli paste add cook for 5-7 mins more.
• Now add remaining ingredients, curd, salt, turmeric, coriander powder and mix well.
• Let it cook in open for few minutes (5-7) till curd and spices are cooked.
• Cover and cook till mutton is completely cooked and meat and fall off the bone easily.
• Add that’s it, it’s done!
• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with roti or naan.