What’s cooking today: Caribbean mutton curry

Spices fascinate me. Put them together in one way and you have Indian, or a regional Indian mix (and they differ from one another greatly too, so that we can make a distinction between a Madras, a Korma, a Rogan Josh etc, and those are only the mainstream ones in one country with thousands of spice and masala variations). Put spices together another way and you have Moroccan, or a spice mix from the Levant. Yet another way and they’re what we used to call Persian. In the Caribbean, a spice blend is quite different, and the focus is often on cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg, sometimes cumin, ginger, coriander and fenugreek too, so the mixture is quite sweet.

There’s also plenty of bay leaf, lots of garlic, and in an ideal world a scotch bonnet chilli, in most Caribbean curries. I could not source those so I had to use green chillies. But get a scotch bonnet if you can.

But the two ingredients that really set this kind of West Indies curry apart are the inclusion of vinegar (as many as 5 Tbsp of brown vinegar go into this one) and sugar, in this case brown. There’s coconut cream in it too, which makes perfect sense for a Caribbean dish. As a matter of interest, Caribbean is considered the more politically correct term for this region of 26 island countries. West Indies was coined in the wake of Christopher Columbus having thought, wrongly, that he had arrived in the East Indies. 

My recipe is the result of much browsing and researching, so it is my take on one, and I don’t claim it to be authentic. If it is reasonably authentic, however, perhaps a West Indies reader will let me know that it’s irie. (And our statistics show that TGIFood is read in almost every country in the world, even if it is only a handful in some. Isn’t that marvellous?)

Ingredients

1.5 kg mutton knuckle slices

1 tsp crushed black peppercorns

6 fresh bay leaves, crumbled

8 medium garlic cloves, sliced

1 large cinnamon stick

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp chilli powder

2 tsp masala/curry powder

1 scant tsp ground cloves

1 scant tsp grated nutmeg

3 green or red chillies or 1 scotch bonnet chilli, sliced thinly

5 Tbsp brown vinegar

6 Tbsp canola oil

2 heaped Tbsp brown sugar

2 onions, halved and sliced thinly

2 x 400 g cans chopped tomatoes

150 ml coconut cream

Salt to taste

For the rice:

Long grain rice, cooked, drained

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 tsp ground turmeric

Cold water

1 Tbsp canola oil

Salt

½ a can of red kidney beans, drained

Chopped coriander

Method

Start early in the day. The mutton should be sliced in chunky pieces.

In a large bowl, combine the garlic, crumbled bay leaves, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, curry powder and chilli powder, then add the pieces of meat and rub the spice mixture into them. Sprinkle 3 Tbsp of the brown vinegar over the meat, then mix it through. Leave it to stand for 5 to 6 hours.

Heat the oven to 170℃ while you prepare the dish. Heat the canola oil in a heavy oven pot that has a lid, and brown the meat in batches until well browned all over. Add more oil as needed.

Sauté the sliced onions in the same pot, then push the onions to the side and add 2 Tbsp brown vinegar and stir to deglaze the entire bottom of the pan. Add the meat back to the pot and give it a stir.

Add the chopped tomatoes, chopped chillies and coconut cream, the brown sugar and salt, and bring it to a simmer on the stove top.

Make sure the contents are very hot and bubbling well when you put it into the preheated oven. Cook it for about two and a half hours or the meat is thoroughly tender but not disintegrating.

While it’s in the oven, cook long grain rice in water with a little salt and 1 tsp of ground turmeric, then leave it to drain. Sauté 1 small (or half a large) finely chopped onion in a little oil, then add the cooked and drained rice and fluff it through with a fork. Heat through while stirring, then fold in ½ a can of drained red kidney beans and some chopped coriander. DM/TGIFood

To enquire about Tony Jackman’s book, foodSTUFF (Human & Rousseau) please email him at [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE: There’s much more from Tony Jackman and his food writing colleagues in his weekly TGIFood newsletter, delivered to your inbox every Saturday. Subscribe here. Also visit the TGIFood platform, a repository of all of our food writing.