What’s cooking today: Karoo mutton curry

This spicy and sweet mutton curry starts with a paste and ends with a flourish of coriander. Along the way, you’ll savour flavours of cardamom and ginger, clove and turmeric. It’s all about layers of piquancy. (This recipe pairs with this column.)

Ingredients

Make a paste of:

5 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped

4 green chillies, finely chopped

4 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

3 Tbsp cooking oil

For the curry:

3 Tbsp cooking oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp crushed coriander seeds

6 cardamom pods

1 tsp cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 Tbsp masala

2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp chilli flakes

1.5 kg slices of mutton shank (knuckles/skenkels)

1 x 400 g can chopped tomatoes

⅓ cup Mrs H S Ball’s peach chutney

Salt to taste

Chopped coriander for garnish

For the rice:

3 Tbsp cooking oil (sunflower or canola, not olive)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp black mustard seeds

8 green cardamom pods

Method

Grind the garlic, ginger and chillies in a food processor with oil to make a paste.

Simmer the cumin, fennel and mustard seeds, cloves, cardamom pods, coriander seeds and cinnamon stick in oil on a low heat until the seeds crackle.

Add the paste, turmeric, chilli flakes and masala and stir, then add the onion and cook for three minutes. After a minute, add the meat. Salt to taste.

Add the chopped tomatoes and chutney and a can of water. Stir and bring to a simmer. Cook until the meat is tender, which may take as long as four hours; be careful it does not catch at the bottom. Moisten with water if there’s a risk of that.

Meanwhile, cook the rice in your usual way (with a little salt in the boiling water) and, once cooked, stir it into the seeds and cardamom pods which you have first braised in oil until the seeds crackle.

Garnish with coriander and serve with rice studded with spices. DM/TGIFood

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Champion 2021. His book, foodSTUFF, is available in the DM Shop or, if sold out, directly from him. Buy it here. 

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks. Share your versions of his recipes with him on Instagram and he’ll see them and respond.

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