Ritualistically cooked mutton - 'satwik' cooking

In the olden days, goats were sacrificed in Hindu rituals. That practice has now almost been abolished, barring a selective few religious places, and animal sacrifice is now taboo. But in those olden times, the sacrificial meat had a unique cooking style. In our common sense, goat meat is considered to be non-vegetarian. But the sacrificed meat is religiously considered vegetarian, so it had a ‘satwik’ vegetarian cooking process. Onion and Garlic are ritualistically considered non-vegetarian as they stimulate ‘tamas’ in the human body. ‘Satwik’ cooking bans the use of onion and garlic.

This recipe describes the ‘satwik’ cooking of sacrificial goat meat from ancient times. You can try it with mutton or goat meat normally available.

Ingredients:

Mutton or Goat meat – 500 gm

Ginger paste – 1 ½ tbsp

Red chilli powder -1 tsp

Kashmiri red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Coriander powder – 1 tsp

Cumin powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – 1tsp

Gram masala whole – 1 tsp crushed (bay leaf, cinnamon, clove, green cardamom)

Garam masala powder – 1 tsp

Asafetida – 1 tsp soaked in half a cup of water

Salt – 2 tbsp

Sugar – 1 tsp

Curd – 1 cup

Mustard oil – 1 cup

Ghee – 2 tbsp

Instructions:

Crush the green cardamom, cloves and cinnamon.

Mix the mutton in a bowl with the powdered Kashmiri chilli, red chilli, cumin, coriander, turmeric powder, curd, 1 tbsp salt and 2 tbsp mustard oil. Rub the spices with curd and oil into the mutton and set aside for marination.

Take the mustard oil in a skillet and heat it on medium heat. Add a dollop of ghee.

When oil is heated put in a tsp of sugar.

 When sugar caramelizes, put 3 bay leaves and the crushed garam masala.

As the garam masala gives out its flavour, add the soaked asafetida. Sauté well.

Add 1 ½ tsp ginger paste and fry well. Add little water to stop burning.

When the oil separates, put in the marinated mutton and keep cooking.

Meanwhile, wash the bowl where the mutton was being marinated to wash off the masala curd paste clinging to the walls of the bowl.

After half an hour of cooking the mutton, as oil separates from the gravy transfer all in a pressure cooker and place it on heat.

Pour in the water from the washed bowl. Close the lid and let the pressure cooker steam for half an hour more till the mutton is tender.

Open the lid when it is done, put it again on heat and bring it to a boil, adjust the salt to taste, sprinkle the garam masala powder and add some ghee to finish it.

Put down the heat and let it cool to serve.