Rajsthani Laal Maas

Laal Maas is a delicacy from Rajasthan, India. It is a royal dish. In earlier days, especially in the era of kings and Sultan's, during a hunt, the wild game meat, of Boar or Deer was used to prepare the dish. Now, lamb / mutton is used to prepare this Royal dish.

It is a very hot dish, and a lot of whole red chilies are used in it to prepare the dish.

Preparation Time : 4 hours

Cooking Time : 45 minutes

Serves: 4 people

1 kg of Mutton, cut into 16-20 pieces;

300 grams of curd;

4 large size Onions;

1 teaspoon of turmeric;

12 pieces of garlic cloves;

2 teaspoon of ginger paste;

3 bay leaves;

3 pieces of black cardamom;

4-5 pieces of green cardamom;

2 medium piece of cinnamon stick;

5-6 pieces of cloves;

1 medium size mace;

150 grams of ghee or clarified butter;

3 tablespoon of oil;

1 teaspoon of kachri powder (Kachri is a wild variety of cucumbers and it helps to make the meat tender);

6 teaspoon of degi mirch powder;

4 teaspoon of kashmiri chili powder;

3 teaspoon of red chili powder;

15-25 whole red chilies (depending upon your taste you can add more or less);

1 teaspoon of garam masala powder;

salt;

water

> Wash the mutton pieces well.

>Take the mutton pieces and marinate it with salt, red chilli, powder, deghi mirch powder, kachri powder .

>Take the marinated mutton and put in in a refrigerator for at-least 4 hours.

>Take all the whole red chilies, and make a fine paste of it and keep it aside.

> Make thin slices of the onions.

> Cut the garlic cloves into small pieces. (You can prepare ginger-garlic paste as well; but in my opinion, if you will use small pieces of ginger and garlic, that will give a better effect in taste).

> Crush the mace in small pieces.

> After 4 hours or so, take a deep pan, preferably with a lid. Add white oil and add 3/4th of the ghee in it.

> When the smell of ghee is started to come out, add the bay leaf, black and green cardamom; cloves and cinnamon.

> Add the crushed mace in it.Saute all the whole spices for a while till fragrant.

> Add garlic pieces and ginger paste and saute till the raw smell of garlic disappears.

> Now add the sliced onion, and add pinch of salt to it.

> Saute the mixture for another 2 minutes in medium flame or till onion slices turn golden brown color.

> Now add marinated mutton, mix it well with all the whole spices and ginger-garlic-onion mixture and cook in the medium flame for another 12-15 minutes.

> Mutton will ooze out a lot of juices during this 12-15 minutes.

> When the mutton dries out a bit and is browned, add curd in it.

> Add red chili paste; degi mirch powder; red chilli powder and Kashmiri chill powder in it.Mix the entire mixture very well and cool it for another 4-5 minutes in medium flame, until it thickens.

> One can see the meat leaving the oil.Next add 3-4 cups of water and garam masala powder in it.Close the pan with the help of the lid and cook it in low flame for another 20-25 minutes.

> After 20-25 minutes, open the lid, and check if the mutton is cooked. If not, you may need to boil it for some more time.

> Put this entire Laal Maas in a serving dish.

> But this is not the end! After the mutton is cooked, turn off the flame.

> In another pan, add the rest of the ghee, and tamper it with 3-4 whole red chilies and 1 teaspoon of red chili powder.

> Pour the hot ghee with fried red chilli over the Laal Maas.Your

> Laal Maas is ready to serve and eat. Laal Maas will taste best with Bajre ka Roti or Naan. You can also eat it with plane white rice as well.

> I haven't used any cumin powder or coriander powder.

> The mutton will be prepared from its own juice and curd.

> One can also add khas ka paani to make it even more tastier. To make it, take 3-4 table spoon of Khas(poppy seed) and add 10 table spoon of water in it, and keep it aside for overnight.

> Finally, remember, this is a very HOT dish. One can add red chilies as per taste.