Himachal Pradesh is a scenic north-eastern state in India. The cuisine of this land was unknown to me until I made some Himachali friends. With a unique blend of spices their mouth-watering cuisine is definitely unexplored by the rest of India. There is lot that we are missing out on! Here is one such dish, the Mutton Rara, which is unique in that it is cooked with mutton pieces as well as mutton mince. Rara gets its name from the process of cooking. It means slow cooking till something becomes soft and melts called “radna” in Hindi. The mixture of fall off the bone mutton and the kheema imparts a thick delicious gravy to the dish which can be enjoyed with naan or a bowl of steaming hot rice. As you can see this recipe is for a large crowd. I had a potluck to celebrate Dusshera this weekend and decided to make this recipe in a large quantity. Besides, mutton does not last long in my house, so I always make a large batch!
What you will need:
| Ingredients | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Bay Leaves | 3 |
| Black Cardamom | 2 |
| Black Cumin/Shahi Jeera | 1 tablespoon |
| Black Pepper | 1 tablespoon |
| Chopped Cilantro/Coriander Leaves | 1 cup |
| Chopped Mint | 1/4 cup |
| Cinnamon | 3 inches |
| Curd/Yogurt | 2 cups |
| Garlic | 150 grams |
| Ghee | 5 tablespoons |
| Ginger | 50 grams |
| Green Cardamom | 10 |
| Green Chili | 25 grams |
| Kashmiri Red Chili Powder | 8 tablespoons |
| Mace | 4 |
| Mutton | 4 pounds |
| Mutton Kheema | 3 pounds |
| Nutmeg | 1/2 inch |
| Onion | 1 pound |
| Salt | 3.5 tablespoons |
| Spicy Red Chili Powder | 2 tablespoons |
| Tomato | 275 grams |
| Water | 2 cups |
How to make it:
- Marinate the mutton cubes with 1 tablespoon of salt for at least 1 hour.
- Dry roast the whole spices (cinnamon, black and green cardamom, pepper, nutmeg, mace, black cumin and bay leaves). Cool the roasted spices to room temperature. Make a fine powder in a mixer.
- Make a paste of the ginger, garlic and green chilies.
- Add ghee to a vessel. Fry the mutton pieces till they brown. Remove and set aside. This process should not take more than 1 minute of frying on each side. This helps to ensure that the moisture is locked in the meat.
Browned Mutton - To the same ghee, add the ginger-garlic-chili paste. Saute for two minutes.
- Add in finely chopped onions and the remaining amount of salt. Cook till the onions begin to brown. Stir occasionally to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the vessel.
- Add the ground masala along with kashmiri and spicy chili powder. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes and water. Cook till soft.
- Add in the browned mutton pieces and cook for 30 minutes on a medium flame.
- Now, add the curd and mutton kheema. Mix everything well. Lower the flame to a slow simmer.
- Cook until the mutton is soft and falls apart. You can pressure cook at this point as well for 4 whistles to hasten the process. But I prefer to slow cook my mutton.
- Garnish with coriander and mint leaves.
- Enjoy with rice or naan.