Couple of questions on the mutton that you get. What’s the age of the animal that you get the meat from ? The younger , the better…
That said, The essential bit is on marinating the mutton with salt, red chilly powder(Indian brands be better for that) , 1-1 equivalent of ginger garlic…
Easy shit would be for you to tell me how many people you are cooking for. I’ll get you the exact measurements, Keep in mind, Those will be my measurements in terms of the spice… Mine are moderate as per Indian standards.
I know this sounds a bit weird but lamb or mutton is almost a foreign delicacy in this part of southern Germany. I cook with what I can source directly from the nearest slaughterhouse, you buy it from a butcher and you need to rob a bank to pay for it. A shoulder of lamb/ mutton for six people usually when roasting. In this case 750g of meat I suppose.
Do you have Muslim Butchers where you are staying at…
Asking cause this is essentially a muslim dish , It probably needs to be cut that way, It’s not about halal or not…just the way that the meat is cut , the blood needs to be coming out of it. Where i stay in India, It’s probably a mandatory thing that every animal is cut that particular way… the Muslim or the Jewish way of slaughtering the animal , cutting the jugular vein.
Otherwise, fuck it, I’ll give you a nice curry recipe which is a no brainer.
The only slaughterhouse near us that offers mutton is halal, so I’m covered there. Turkish staff mostly. Half the butchers in our area are also Muslim; it’s a feature of this bit of our city.
Just not sure if it will be this weekend after all now so there’s no rush!
That suits me (Consider a person eating 200g of meat for a biryani and adjust accordingly , It is supposed to be a single dish meal)
Look at this
750 grams of mutton - Cut into 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces with bone
Marinate the mutton with Salt (Liberally) , Ginger Garlic Paste (on a 1-1 ratio, you are talking about 80g of ginger and 80g of garlic) , Chilly Powder , Lemon (Size of lemons matters here, I’d say about 40ml of juice for the meat…Add liberal amounts of Coriander Powder… and then some Curd(Indian Thick Yoghurt… if not available , Plain Greek Yoghurt, Add about 300ml of that… Add about 100ml of vegetable oil to the marinate and let it rest for as long as you can… (Maybe even overnight if possible , atleast 6 hrs)… Please keep in mind that the end mixture has to be salty to the taste.
Slice some 2 Large Onions… Deep Fry them till they are golden brown tending to reddish brown… Strain them and keep aside to mix with the marinated mutton before keeping the mutton to marinate.
In a vessel , add adequate amount of water , Add Bay Leaves, Salt , Star Anise , Cinnamon Stick (A small one) , Cardomom seeds ( 7 ) , Cloves ( 6-7) and let the water come to the boil. In the meantime , Soak the Basmati Rice in water for a good 40 min. The ratio is 1 kg meat to 1/2 kg of rice , That can be adjusted as per preferences later. The water in this has to taste salty as well
Add the rice once the water comes fully to boil , and cook till the rice is past al-dente, (80% cooked) ,
In the meantime , Take a flat bottomed Saucepan and keep the mutton on it. Add the Rice after straining out the water and garnish with Chopped Coriander, Mint and Ghee. A little bit of Saffron soaked in milk would do wonders, Close the lid , Ensure no moisture or steam escapes from it by doughing it… and cook on very low flame for a good 40-50 min
A kamado is really a lot like a tandoor in the basic shape, just happens to have a grill mounted at the top with a bed of coals at the bottom. I don’t think one could do a naan along the walls of it very well though.
It actually occurred to me to build a tandoor out of a large clay pot, but I decided to hold off for at least a year - the sort of pots that I have in mind don’t survive our winters due to the freezing, so would need to be stored indoors for the winter months.
A Tandoor need not be built from Clay. That would be optimum though, But you can easily do a vertical smoker type arrangement with coal at the bottom , closing all the vents to ensure that the heat remains trapped there. If you are intent on clay, It needs to be baked before using.
Well, I was thinking about clay to get the best results, then faced the -25 C problem, was looking at metal and realized that was getting fairly close to what a kamado was able to do.
