Ma-in-law's Robibarer Mangshor Jhol -- Bengali Mutton Curry

Robibarer Pathar Mangshor Jhol - Bengali Mutton Curry

Sunday Bengali Mutton Curry | Robibar er Mangshor Jhol

This quintessential Bengali Mutton Curry is synonymous to Sunday lunch. This recipe of mutton curry or panthar manghso is from my Mother-in-law and has a thinner curry or jhol than my Mother's. Mixed with rice and some salad it is a very flavorful meal

Bengali Mutton Curry (Panthar Mangshor Jhol)

Goat Meat Curry in the Oven

This post is not about clouds.

It is about Manghsor Jhol -- Mutton Curry. The Sunday one. The Bengali home staple that has reached a mythical proportion simply by virtue of us bragging about it. And Robibarer Manghsor Jhol does give us bragging rights, the whole gamut of it. We have nostalgia woven with it.

Bengali Mutton Curry

But I have written paeans about it in my earlier posts so today I will talk about clouds instead.

Not that I know much about them. The only times I actually watch clouds is when I am stuck in traffic or more specifically when I am stuck in traffic with two kids in the back seat. Also when there is no traffic but a never ending road and two kids in the back seat, I often suggest that they watch clouds. Somehow it makes me feel like a very free spirited kind of Mother, the one who makes blueberry jam and then spreads it thick on coarse rye bread handing them over to her children who play in the meadows by brambles and thistles.

Sadly I am not that kind. I have never made blueberry jam and my kids refuse rye bread. And we will not even discuss brambles. But I digress.

So anyway this random "cloud watching" thing inspired a desire in Little Sis to spend an entire afternoon watching clouds and nothing but clouds. And she wanted it to be done in a proper setting. Not from cars. Lying down on a sleeping bag(no grass mind you)  set out in the deck on some balmy summer afternoon, LS wanted to watch them clouds.

Amazingly two summer months almost passed us by and we never got a chance to do that! So when summer was drawing to a close, I grabbed a late afternoon with a good measure of clouds and we watched. No proper setting, no sleeping bag, not even grass. While BigSis was attending one of her classes we sat on the ledge by the sidewalk outside her class and watched.

"Wow. Doesn't that one look like a teddy bear?", I said trying to be at my excited best.

"No. It looks like a monster", said LS.

"Now that one is like a cute little doggy", I said all cloying and sweet.

LS who was now more interested in the rocks on the sidewalk than any cloud, glanced and said  "Nope. It looks like a big dragon".

"Come on. This one surely is like a magic fairy's hair", I blurted out trying to salvage a sweet cloud watch moment.

"Oita dushtu lok er moton lagche (That one looks like a mean person)", concluded LS.

And with that we closed our "cloud watch' chapter and concentrated on rock tricks,

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Okay and before I go onto the mutton curry, I have to tell you this. Soon after turning four, LS seems to have discovered the words "girlish" and "boyish". I have no clue where she got them from but she has been scattering her conversations with those words.

Today hearing her Dad's voice over the phone, she declared "Baba sounded very girl-ish on the phone. Maybe he drank too much pink lemonade"

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Back to the mutton curry now which is my Ma-in-law's recipe this time. Her Sunday Mutton curry recipe is different from my Mother's Sunday mutton curry recipe and yet they largely taste the same with finer points to be debated on. The mother-in-law's recipe involves marinating the mutton with  mustard oil, all the spices, tomato, onion, garlic and ginger that makes the curry. If you can manage to do this single step of detailed marination, the night before, the actual cooking happens very fast the next day.

Now on days when you are rushing and a simple mutton curry will do you can side-step the "kashano" or "bhuno" part of this recipe and directly make the jhol in the Pressure cooker. That jhol is a bit runny and akin to something that the famous author Syed Mujtaba Ali would refer to as "Bangali'r Mangshor Maacher Jhol" which means a Mutton Curry which is as runny as plain as an everyday fish curry.

If you spend 30 mins of your time in "kashano",then the same mutton curry becomes richer and more regal looking. Take your pick and have a lovely Sunday lunch of Mutton curry and rice. Oh yes, do cook the rice in the same pressure cooker with remnants of the mutton gravy to flavor it and little ghee. My daughters love that rice as much as the curry.

Ma-in-Law's Sunday Mutton Curry

Wash and clean 2lb of goat meat.

Make a paste of following
2 cups of chopped red onion
6 fat clove of garlic(12 regular)
2" of ginger peeled and chopped

Roughly pound 5-6 hot Indin green chili.

Chop 1 medium sized tomato. If the tomatoes are the tough. commercial kind just puree them or get a better tomato.

Chop 3 potatoes in half

In a bowl marinate the meat with
onion+garlic+ginger  paste
the tomato
1 tbsp Cumin Powder (sometimes I replace this with Meat Masala for a richer taste)
1 tsp Red Chili Powder or Kashmiri Mirch
1 tsp Turmeric powder
2 tsp Mustard Oil
1-2 tbsp yogurt
salt to taste
Ideally overnight marination is good but even 3-4 hours works well.

Half an hour before cooking toss the pottaoes along with the meat in the marinade.

When you are ready to cook, get your pressure cooker. If you don't have one, do not panic, we can also do it in a regular heavy bottomed pan, only it will take longer.

Heat about 2tbsp Mustard Oil in the cooker. Add a tsp of sugar and caramelize it.

Next temper the oil with
4 Green Cardamom/Elaichi
4 Clove/Laung
1 Bay leaf/TejPatta
a 2" stick of cinnamon

Once the oil is flavored add the marinated mutton and the potatoes. Add the pounded green chilies.

Mix everything well together and let it cook for some time. Stir intermittently so that the meat does not stick to the bottom of the cooker. The meat will also release some water. Wait for the water to almost dry up and for the meat to change color.

For a richer version of this curry, the meat is kasha-oed for about 25-20 minutes till you see the oil surfacing. But in my Ma-in-law's everyday version, we do not wait for the oil to surface. Once the meat has changed color and no longer looks raw, we give a good stir, and add enough water so that the meat pieces are submerged. Then I adjust for salt and spices and close the Pressure Cooker lid.

Once the Cooker starts going "Phissssssshhh", I wait for about 8 minutes or so and then switch off. I have a Futura cooker and it does not whistle so I am not sure of the number of whistles.

Make a wet paste of
2 green cardamom
2 clove
small stick of cinnamon
in a mortar-pestle
Once the pressure has been released, open lid and add this fresh garam masala paste(kaaNcha garam mashla bata) along with little ghee. Close the lid again and open only at time of serving. Thanks UshnishDa for this tip.

A's Saturday Night Mutton Biriyani -- cut and paste

Last week I went to the library.

And then I checked out 3 books.

One of them was "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society". Now this book I have been hearing about for a while now. However I never checked it out. "The name sounds intriguing" is as far I went.

I have a difficult time when it comes to choosing a book at the library. Gone is the time when I would pick up any written word and read through it with baited breath. Gone are the days when many a summer afternoon in absence of anything worthy of reading,  I would flip through the frail pages of the "Beni Madhab Sheel Ponjika" -- the Bengali almanac, its jacaranda cover fluttering helplessly like the fine petal of Nayantara, and read through muhurtams and lewd advertisements on the back cover without any idea of what they were trying to sell. Those were times when, if the librarian of our small town sent home a word about their newest consignment, I would rush to inhale the fragrance of fresh ink and paper without losing a minute.

Now, not so much so. I just cannot read "any thing" these days. At least not on print. Anyway I read so much of "anything" and "nothing" on the web that when it comes to a book I want something which I can feel happy about later. Like a good biriyani. One that will not make me gulp down pepto-bismols in retrospect.

So when I check out a book from the librray I want it to be something I look forward to going home to. Last month it was "Fried Green Tomatoes at the WhistleStop Cafe". I have not seen the movie and I don't review books but all I can say is I enjoyed reading it immensely. A couple of months before that was "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn", again another wonderful book(thanks I for reminding).

Last week it was "The Guernsey...". And it is a book that not only makes me want to rush home, put up my feet and start reading (which does not happen everyday) but it scares me as to what will I do once the numbered pages are over. It is a book I want to go on forever. I don't know if it happens with you but it often happens to me. I panic about a book getting over, I panic hearing about an author slowing down and not writing enough. I still remember the immense sadness I felt when I had finished reading all of what Lila Majumdar had written and published. When the series "Ruku-Shuku" in Anandomela had winded down I had moped around for one whole month. When I closed shut "Gone With The Wind" I did not know what to do.

"The guernsey..." seems to have that kind of an effect on me. I do not want it to get over and when I do finish the last few pages I am going to be a very unhappy soul.

If I think of it deeply, it is a lot like a good biriyani or a heavenly egg roll or a bowl of Tom Yum soup.

Now given that I have spent my free time reading, I did not cook  a biriyani. In fact I rarely ever cook a full fledged biriyani. Most of my biriyanis are short cut affairs. The husband man however cooks a mean Biriyani following a friend's recipe and the fact that the friend's recipes is of US fame makes sure that his is pretty good. However once, with a sidelong glance, I happened to see the ghee that he puts in that Biriyani.That made certain that  I never dared to try my hand at it.

That Mutton Biriyani we will talk about another day.

This Biriyani today is sent by a dear friend, a friend of long ago whom I lost touch with and then connected again over the blog. Strange Stories. Amazing facts. Now since I am a very nice person(ahem!) and only keep nicer company(amen to that), it was only natural that my friend took time from her busy life to not only cook a Biriyani but also take pictures and send it to me. I mean she sent the recipes and pics, not the biriyani, though the latter would have definitely been much welcomed.

Over to her for the recipe as well as the pictures. I loved it how she split the work between two days and wrote the recipe accordingly, makes planning easy. I have no contribution to this recipe's deliciousness other than "cut and paste". Also she cooked this dish at her home in India so the microwave settings etc. might differ from other region.

Aditi's Mutton Biryani (North Indian style)

Ingredients & Preparation:

1. (Friday evening)

Mutton (front leg preferable for tenderness) –  750 g
Plain Curd (prefer Nestle) – 300 gms

Wash mutton pieces carefully with hot water to remove skin and hair. Marinate with half of the curd and keep in refrigerator (not freezer) overnight. Should be taken out well ahead of cooking and be in room temperature while cooking.

2. (Saturday morning)

Ghee – 6 tsp
Shah Jeera (Black Cumin) seeds – ½ tsp
Onions – 2 large finely chopped
Red Chili powder – 1 tsp
Garlic paste – 2 tsp (generous)
Ginger paste – 2 tsp (generous)
Coriander seeds – 2 tsp roasted and freshly powdered
Salt – 1 ½ tsp
Curd – ½ of section A beaten with half tsp ready made Shahi Garam masala powder (Shahi garam masala by sunrise is the best)

Heat ghee in a non-sticky wok or pressure pan.  Put shah jeera as phoron. Add onion and fry in high heat stirring constantly to nicely golden brown, take care they do not get burnt. Add red chili and garlic. Saute till fragrant. Add ginger and saute. Add coriander powder. (May sprinkle a little water if required). Stir and then add mutton. Saute well till muttons are brown and oil separates (do not overcook as they may dry up – its better to use a lid while kashano). Add the salt towards the end of kashano. Add the curd and saute well. Add sufficient water. Boil and pressure cook for 15-20 mins in low flame. Open the lid when pressure drops and boil to evaporate any residual water (there shouldn’t be any residual water at all or the biriyani will get messy). 

3. (Sat day afternoon)

Long grain basmati rice (best quality) – 375 gms
Salt – 1 ½ tsp
Bay leaves (1-2 pcs)
Black Cardamon – 1
Green  Cardamom - 4
Cinnamon – 2 inch * 2 pc
White pepper corn – 8 pcs
Cloves – 8 pcs
Mace (javitri) – 2-4 pcs (sizewise)
Nutmeg – ¼
Wash the rice very clean and put them in a strainer, for 30 mins.

Boil sufficient water in a deep container with lid. Add salt. Add the spices (can make a bouquet garni if possible, if not, use a slotted spoon while removing) and boil in the water (covered) in low flame till the colour of the water turns light brown.  Remove the spices.

Pour washed and strained rice into the boiling water and stir immediately once. Boil for 11-12 mins approx (rice breaks but not fully done when checking) in the open container. Close the lid and drain the water carefully, very fast. Drain till the last drop possible. (Best way is to hold the container with two cotton-gloved hands over the support of the faucet). Shake the container, tuck the lid and spread the rice immediately on flat trays. You may cover the rice with a net and put under a fan to cool. The rice should not bend or break in the whole process and get completely cool.

4. (Once the rice cools)

A microwavable earthen / ceramic pot with lid
Indian Saffron – quantity depends on freshness
Full cream milk – 50 ml
Kewra water – 1 tsp
Mughlai scent (edible) – 3-4 drops (this makes the difference)
Whole wheat dough – 1 ball (to seal the lid)
Edible Saffron colour – a few drops

Heat milk in a microwave oven and add saffron. Boil in micro high for 15 sec. Mix with the colour. Sprinkle the milk on the rice unevenly.

Take a sufficient sized ceramic microwavable bowl. Place 1/4 of rice. Arrange 1/4 mutton with gravy. Place next layers the same way. Final layer should be only mutton. Spread the remaining gravy with ghee (from the pan) on all the sides. Mix kewra water and scent. Sprinkle on whole top of the bowl. Close the lid to lock the aroma - seal with flatten wheat dough like a ribbon.

Put the bowl in micro 10% (not more) for 70 mins till the seal becomes hard. Break the seal. Mix up once and serve immediately. Enjoy.

A Rich Bread Pudding -- with chocolate and some liqueuer

August is a confusing month.

It is still summer but there is a faint hint of Fall in the air. You can feel that invisible tug in your heart, the one that whispers about colder days and bare trees.

When the alarm rings 5:30 in the morning, it is now dark outside and the dull yellow of the street lights seem kind of tired waiting for the sun to rise.The early sunrise and eager chirping of the birds are missing.I shush the alarm and snuggle into the quilted comforter.

Early morning when I juggle a coffee mug, a juice jar and umpteen bags, trying my best to slide into my car with minimum drama, I see fine drops of  water droplets on the windshield. My heart skips a bit and the juice spills over.

The kids still play outside and draw on the sidewalk or ride their bike but the sun seems to plunge down early and by 8 in the evening big blobs of darkness has fallen around us. It is night, already, we ask ? Even a few days back we went for twilight icecream at 8:30.

You feel the days getting shorter. And yet you feel happy, lucky to cherish the warmth and the luxury of  the remaining summer days.

August is also a special month for us, a year older,  a year together,  lessons learned, tears forgotten. For her birthday in August, LS did not want a party this year. Instead she wanted to spend it in a park and if it is an amusement park with rides that soar high she did not even want a present. So off we went to one such park that also had a chocolate factory next door, a 3 hour drive away to spend 3 days riding high and having fun. I mean I didn't. I mean I had fun but thank you no rides for me. LS had too much fun riding everything permissible with BS and BS's best friend who had come along with us. It was much fun to see the three girls together and though I spent 99% of the time just watching, I must say I had a good time.

Back home we are now getting ready for the new school year. Folders, Binders, notebooks, sharpened pencils are being bought. School is still 3 weeks away but I guess we are kind of ready for it. As much as we will miss summer, there are lot of things to look forward to.

And to pep up the feeling there can be nothing better than a warm oven and a home that smells of sweet vanilla and spicy cinnamon. So the husband man baked a bread pudding, a rich, delicious affair. The trusted recipe was from T, the one of the Tiramisu fame.

This bread pudding was exotic, at least it was very different from the bread pudding my Ma used to make very often. This one was rich, dense, gooey with all that chocolate and soft soaking in a sauce made with Irish Cream liqueur. It was  PURE BLISS and I don't even like throwing my uppercases around.

If you are like me and lamenting the loss of summer, you should totally make this bread pudding. It will make you so happy that you will start craving snow and thick fleece blankets. Maybe it is the liqueur doing the talking but you will never know unless you crank up the oven and tear up that bread.

The recipe here is in T's exact words, so the "I" is actually "T". She wrote it in first person. Get it ?

The husband-man followed the recipe like a Bible.Okay, that might not amount to much. What I want to say is,He followed the recipe exactly as written.And you better do that too.

Bread pudding

    14 cups 3/4-inch cubes white bread with crust (about 12 ounces) - apparently French bread would have worked better, but I used just plain store bought white bread
    6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
    4 ounces imported white chocolate, chopped
    4 large eggs
    1/2 cup plus 4 tablespoons sugar
    2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    pinch of cinnamon powder
    2 cups whipping cream
    Nonstick vegetable oil spray


For bread pudding:
Combine bread, chocolate, and white chocolate in large bowl; toss to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon and vanilla in another large bowl to blend. Gradually beat in 1 1/2 cups cream. Add cream mixture to bread mixture; stir to combine. Let stand 30 minutes. (Here it should have stood about an hour, or an hour plus, but I was running short on time!)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray. Transfer bread mixture to prepared dish, spreading evenly. Drizzle with remaining 1/2 cup cream. (I didn't do this, I felt it was sweet enough ->) Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.

Bake pudding until edges are golden and custard is set in center, about 1 hour. Cool pudding slightly, serve warm.


The sauce

    1/2 cup whipping cream
    6 tablespoons Irish cream liqueur
    1/4 cup sugar (I didn't add this, was sweet enough already!)
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
       

Since I felt my bread pudding could do with a little more moisture, I didn’t thicken the sauce to drizzle consistency, rather kept it creamy and poured it in. Also I felt the bread pudding was sweet enough, so didn't add the sugar.

Mmmmm...just writing this is driving me into a tizzy... a tizzy.. is there a word like that ? I cannot wait to eat this again. Soon