Gandhoraj Mutton-- Mutton curry with a Special Lemon Flavor

After the hot and humid summer days in Kolkata finally the rain is here. The pitter patter rain drops buzzing on the window pane, the asbestos roof on a nearby garage create a natural rain tune. Tadpoles are jumping and playing in the puddles. The rain drops and those tiny froggy leaps make ripples over the water logged puddles.

 The hot and dusty earth drenched in the shower fills the air with a beautiful earthy aroma. The brown dusty leaves have been washed fresh with the rain splash. It has washed away the old dusky look ushering a fresh rejuvenated green look.

 It seems like the nature is busy applying a green make over everywhere. We love the rain soaked earthy smell coming from the drenched land, natural melody created with rain splashing sound mixed with the gusty wind sound with occasional lightening and thunders.

 The nature seems partying through rain dance with beautiful rain melody created around.

In this romantic atmosphere, we feel like to celebrate rain with good food served on the plates. If the nature is partying in, then should we not join nature’s table with our delicacy cooked. Jokes apart, on a rainy day snacks being varieties of fried food with puffed rice combined with spiced tea increase the craving for heavy lunch. Checked my fridge and found goat meat in storage and instantly I decided to make mutton but not the regular curry. It should be something different. To keep in sync with nature’s green I thought of adding something new in the ingredient that is green in color and is rejuvenating, too. Yes, I had good amounts of Gandhoraj (Aroma King) limes collected from local market. The fragrance of this lime cannot be compared with any other lemon. Other than Bengalies I do not know if any other community uses this lime at all in their recipes. Many of us are really fanatic about this Gandhoraj lime.

As the name suggest, the lime has an incomparable excellent aroma which is strong yet very pleasant. We make several recipes with this lime. The leaves of this lime tree have equally good aroma as its fruits. We use its leaves too in our recipes along with the lime. The origin of the use of this lime lies in Bangladesh.  Therefore, it is commonly used in many East Bengal recipes.

However, the Bengalies from West Bengal have adapted many of those recipes and started using this lime. I had been missing this lime for years and now feeling lucky to have it back on my daily life after returning to Kolkata. During my childhood I have always had this lime in our garden. My mom used to make lime juice out of those limes and stored in the fridge. She used to make sherbat with the lime juice. The fragrance was far better than store bought lime syrup. She also used to apply leaves of this lime tree while making sherbet with bel or wood apple (scientific name: Aegle marmelos). However, my mom being a perfect ghoti (West Bengal origin) has never used in in her cooking, though.

Goat meat tastes very authentic with the mild flavor of this lime leaves added along with its zest to the gravy. Sometimes goat meat, specially, older goat meat carry a strong smell in the meat. This smell is very much strong and similar as that in lamb meat. That is why my hubby always refuses to consume lamb and also does not like to eat all recipes of goat meat. To subdue the strong smell of the meat this aroma king lime is actually the best. The recipe of the gandhoraj mutton is described below:

Ingredients

 

Mutton: 1 Kg (2 lb)

Onion paste: 4 tablespoon

Ginger paste: 1+1 tablespoon

Garlic: 1 tablespoon

Green chilies: 3-4 (as per taste)

Coriander powder: 1.5 teaspoon

Cumin powder: 1 teaspoon

Red chili powder: 1 teaspoon                          

Turmeric: 1 teaspoon

Garam masala powder (cardamom, clove and cinnamon freshly made): 1 teaspoon

Bay leaf: 1

Whole Cardamom, Clove and Cinnamon Stick: 1 teaspoon

Nutmeg powder: 1⁄2 teaspoon (freshly made)

Gandhoraj Lime: 1

Kaffir/Gandhoraj Lime Leaves: 3-4

Vinegar: 1 teaspoon

Salt: As per taste

Sugar: As per taste

Mustard oil: 3 table spoon

Steps:

 

1. Clean the mutton, take the fat out of the pieces. Rub 1/2 teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon vinegar. Marinate it for 1 hour.

2. Grind onion, ginger and garlic separately. Marinate the mutton pieces with 2 table spoon of onion paste, 1.5 teaspoons of ginger and 1.5 teaspoon of garlic paste, 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder, one tablespoon of mustard oil, 1.5 teaspoon of gandhoraj lime juice, 1/2 teaspoon of lime zest and a few pieces of lime leaves for 2 more hours.

3. Grind cardamom, clove, cinnamon to a fine garam masala powder.


4. Heat mustard oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add the bay leaf, whole garam masala, 1 teaspoon of crushed nutmeg, 2/3 petals of mace and one teaspoon of sugar.

5.When the sugar changes color, add the onion paste. Fry it until it changes color and dries up.

6.Add ginger and garlic paste respectively and mix it well with the onion paste by stirring continuously.

7. Add the turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and little red chilli powder on the wok. Fry it with other pastes. You can actually soak  all the dry masala powders with a few teaspoons of water for10-15 minutes and then add this paste to kadhai, it tastes better.

 

8.  When all the masalas are well cooked, add the marinated mutton. Mix it well with the spices mixture.


9.  Cover and cook. As I have not used pressure cooker it took little longer time for the mutton to get boiled. If you are in a hurry, pressure cook the mutton with other mixture. It might take 3-4 whistles for the mutton to be fully cooked depending on the type and quality of mutton. For my case, cooking on the wok, it took 1 hour. Stir in between to make sure it does not stick to the bottom.


10. Till now I have not added any extra water, The mutton should have been tender by now. Now add the rest of lime leaves and quartered piece of a gandhorah lime and 1/2 cup warm water to the gravy. Again cover and cook.


11. After 5 minutes add 1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger. If you want to add potato to your mutton like a perfect bong, add the fried pieces of potatoes now. Cover and cook again for 10 minutes, until the potatoes get well coated and mixed with the mutton gravy and fully done.


12. Add 1 teaspoon of the ground garam masala. Cover and turn off the heat.


13. Serve it with hot rice. As it was raining that day, I added papad fry to our plates. 

 

Happy cooking!! Enjoy!!!