Mum’s Mutton Dhansak Recipe

It’s been a long time since I have not written anything. Reasons being very very busy with work and then out of station for a marriage. But can I say I missed writing 😦 and I guess some of you wondered where have I been and yes I would like to believe you all missed it 😛

Anyways to start with as already mentioned in one of the earlier posts I am a foodie 😛 I loooove food and I what I look forward to having in my food is variety 🙂 I remember in my childhood I never understood the BEAUTY (that’s what I feel now) of food, so I always said it’s the worst thing God made. So right from the beginning I troubled my mother a lot and sometimes my brother too for food.My mother every morning had to search for something new to be cooked for breakfast as I used to refuse to eat the same breakfast everyday.Also, my mother had a difficult time finding and cooking new things as I didn’t eat everything and I was fussy 😛 So that was till I was in school, when I left home for higher studies I realized the importance of food and especially home cooked food.In the college hostel, the food was okay, I would not say great but definitely not bad. There was a time in college days that I used to have multiple dinners and I used to ask “What’s in dinner” even before I had digested my lunch 😛 Thanks to my brother I too started tasting various cuisines and started appreciating food even more. That’s my experience with food 🙂

My father being in the army, we travelled a lot and interacted with a lot of people from different parts of the country. My mother learnt various cuisines, right from the traditional Punjabi, Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Gujrati, South Indian to the more International flavours of Thai, Chinese, Continental, Burmese and many more. She tells me that when she got married she did not know anything to cook. She took the help of various recipe books and she started with the most difficult one that is baking and I must say she is excellent at it. She has about 6-7 hand written books of various recipes tried and tested. I feel blessed to have all those now 🙂 I trust these recipes blindly as I know my mother is the BEST COOK.

So here I share some successful and some unsuccessful recipes I tried 😛

Mutton dhansak is a Parsi recipe and an all time favourite in our house. It can be prepared with chicken, vegetable or mutton. But I believe mutton tastes the best, as the flavour mutton induces in the curry is just out of the world and when you cook it the aroma of the food will be felt around in the neighbourhood. I believe unless the food doesn’t smell good and presentable, it’s no use 😛

Ingredients:

For the base:

Mutton: 500g

Potatoes (medium sized, peeled and cut in big pieces):  2

Pumpkin (Kadoo): 200g finely chopped 

Bottle gourd: 100g finely chopped

Onions (medium sized): 3-4 finely chopped

Mint: 1/2 bunch

Coriander: 1/2 bunch

Ginger Garlic Paste: ½ teaspoon

Turmeric Powder: ½ teaspoon

Salt to taste

Coriander Powder: 1 teaspoon

Red chilli powder: 1 teaspoon  (Generally, I put all masalas according to taste so adjust it :P)

Toor Daal: 1 and half serving bowl (bowls in which we generally serve curry, I think it should be around 150 g :P)

For the paste:

Cumin seeds (Jeera): 1 1/2 tablespoon

Mustard seeds (Sarso): 3 tablespoon

Coriander seeds (Methi dana):  1 teaspoon

2 green chillies

8-10 cloves of garlic

Miscellaneous:

Fresh tomato puree: 6-7

Kashmiri chilli powder: 1 teaspoon

Coriander powder: ½ teaspoon

Dhansak masala: almost 50g or even more

Mint : ½ bunch

Coriander: ½ bunch

Method:

1. In a big pressure cooker put all the ingredients mentioned in the section base. All vegetables (except potatoes) should be finely diced as this has to be pureed later (I hate to do the cutting, so thankfully I had somebody to do it :P). Let one whistle come on high flame and then put the flame on slow and let it cook for 10 min.
2. While the cooker is whistling, make a paste of the ingredients mentioned in section paste. (You may have to soak cumin and mustard seeds in water for an hour or so, it will help in grinding).
3. Once step 1 is completed, take oil around 1 tablespoon in a separate utensil and put the fresh tomato puree in it. After sometime put Kashmiri red chilli powder, coriander powder in the puree. This has to be cooked nicely till the time the puree changes colour and you can see oil separating.
4. Meanwhile, you can take out mutton and potatoes from the cooker in a separate bowl and using a blender (preferably), mash all other ingredients (including daal).
5. Add the mashed ingredients, mutton and potatoes to the puree. Next add the main ingredient that is dhansak masala. Mix around 1 bowl of dhansak masala mixed with little water (approx. 2 teaspoon) to get a thick paste and put this to the above ingredients. This may have to be adjusted till the time you do not get a prominent flavour of dhansak masala.
6. Add finely chopped other half bunch of coriander and mint.
7. Let this cook covered for an hour or so. And the MUTTON DHANSAK is ready to serve.
8. Serve with jeera rice and tomato, onion and coriander salad.

You may have to keep adjusting salt according to taste. I am not sure where in Bangalore dhansak masala is available, I get it from Pune.

Next time I will try and put photos 😛 So this is the easy and absolutely delicious dhansak recipe by my Mom 🙂 While my husband is busy having a laugh at my first recipe blog you all try it 🙂 Hope you enjoy it 🙂

-Jyotsana