MORICH BATA MUTTON

That was the first time I cooked mutton with black & white pepper; earlier this month. Oh! I may have done a Mysore style mutton pepper fry earlier that I had in Cameron Highland & Mutthu's Curry here! I have heard from many sources that black pepper paste gets a zing to a meat preparation. Bengalis in North Kolkata go gaga over Golbarir Kosha Mangsho which uses it. Unfortunately, I never tasted it till date. You all know our parents could not think of buying curries for us from the eateries, neither they had the habit of dining out in restaurants. When I left school, me and the mother used to go out, had food too, would get it for the brother. I remember we used to have bhature-chole in the Punjabi eatery adjacent to Golbari, we were regular at Madras Tiffin for dosas & idlis, even cutlets came from Maloncho but having Bengali curries outside of home was beyond any thinking. This continues to be now. We used to do so much of restaurant hopping during the man's sailing days; whenever he came home, never we went to a Bengali restaurant or eatery. May be only once we went to Woh!Calcutta and this guy ate Daab Chingri with naan.

The senior is absolutely against eating rice in a restaurant unless it is Thai Food. The son orders oriental rice plates for himself some days, I eat that in a food court, the man will not. I got the biggest compliment from him, "I come from a family who knows cooking; my wife cooks pretty good Bengali; why should I pay Rs.500-600 for a plate of "aloo posto" just for the presentation?" My personal wish is to visit a Bengali eatery in Kolkata than a restaurant; Kewpies to be precise. Okay, I see in Google, it has turned into a cosy dine-in and calls itself a restaurant. Who to go with? In Kolkata, I do not dine alone, the family there would say, "roj barite bangali khacchi." Even I think, a Bengali restaurant will offer you a Bengali styled, non-vegetarian mutton curry like this MORICH BATA MUTTON or a Gondhoraj Chingri; will they serve you a Kochu Shaak er Ghonto, roast & ground a kolai er dal / black lentil and then slow cook as the granny did or have that narkol-man kochu bata you see at far in the picture in offer?

I am in a hurry today. I have to go out in an emergency. I must finish off with the post as soon as possible. I was cooking in the morning. I did a potato & bell pepper sabzi to go with porota in the man's lunch box. I did not do bread friendly sides last weekend, right? My man is so less of a Bengali; likes shimla mirch, gobi, shalgom-aloo, kohlrabi-aloo sabzi with different bread varieties. Why do I even cook vegetables for hours; if not I may suffer from identity crisis. Like, yesterday night, he skipped his favourite fish head dal because there was mutton & dried fish. Arey, taste everything, only three dishes are served. He thinks, I over pack his lunch & snack boxes. No, chain smokers & tea / coffee drinkers lose appetite. He is one.

Okay, I baked a vanilla cake yesterday which has egg. I will taste it after sometime. It got so fluffy but I do not like the shape. I do have some good, basic cake recipes to share but I have to get a good reason to do the same. Till then bear with my deshi recipes; very rustic on some days, and one like this Bengali themed non-vegetarian mutton with three variety of peppers MORICH BATA MUTTON.

INGREDIENTS :

MUTTON : 1KG [THESE DAYS, I BUY THE FRONT LEG OF THE SHEEP MEAT AVAILABLE HERE, GET IT CUT INTO DESIRED SIZES]
GARLIC PASTE : 2TBSP
GINGER PASTE : 1TBSP
ONION PASTE : 4-5TBSP
BLACK PEPPER CORN : 11/2TSP
WHITE PEPPER CORN : 1/2TSP
GREEN CHILLI : 5-6
TURMERIC POWDER : 1TSP + 1/2TSP
VINEGAR : 3-4TBSP
BAY LEAF : 1 OR 2
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 4TBSP


PROCEDURE :

Wash the meat pieces well under running water. Marinate it with salt, 1tsp turmeric, the onion paste, the ginger & garlic pastes, vinegar, oil for at least 5-6 hours, refrigerated. If mutton, I refrigerate the marinated pieces in a closed container overnight.

Take out the bowl an hour or two before you start to cook.

Heat a pan and add all of the marinated mutton including the marinade. Stir at high heat for few minutes. Reduce heat to minimal.

Cover cook at minimal heat for 35-40 minutes, checking & stirring in between. A lot of water will release and it will dry in those minutes.

Meanwhile, we have pasted the washed black pepper corns, white peppercorns and green chillies together adding 1/4 small tea cup of water; more if required.

We will add this paste to the meat in the wok and stir cook at minimal heat for 6-7 minutes.

We will add 2-3 coffee mugs of warm water to the wok, give a stir and cover.

We will cover cook at minimal heat for 35-40 minutes again at minimal heat. We should be done. My family does not like fall off the bone meat, you cooking time may differ.

You can see, I also cooked small gar fish & potato curry / aloo diye kakila maacher jhol, split black lentil curry / mash kolai er dal; man kochu-shorshe-lanka-narkol bata / white yam-black mustard-chilli-coconut paste on that day!