(Healthy) Mutton curry

For all their left-brainess, men, can be pretty clueless sometimes. Just like the time about 25 years ago, right after my SRP exams, my late grandma and my mother left for a trip to India (yes without me, my mom isnt one of those mothers who take their kids everywhere) and i was assigned with housekeeping job and cooking for my grandad. THe next morning itself, old man goes to market and plonks a kg of fresh mutton on the table. You see, grandma had him on once a forthnight only red meat ration. So i guess it was his celebration of freedom, hehe! Or maybe he was miffed old lady left him and went. Hmmm...

ANyway, there i was, only recently initiated to cooking sambar (dhall curry) and some chutneys and veges and i was just going on one of those vegetarian stints. What the hell was i going to do with a kg of raw meat. I had never handled that bloody stuff!!!!

So i scoured through some old recipe books. And came across a dry mutton dish in a Malay, yes, MALAY, haha, recipe book. I dont how i did it, but old man ended up eating without a complaint. Whew!

So yea, fast forward 25 years and yesterday, my good husband plonked another kg of local mutton on the table and disappeared. Local mutton means, uncut, chunky bones, ribs and all. Whats with men and meat, huh? Is it a cave man thing?

So there i was without a proper chopping board or chopping knife, my tactical manevour/excuse for not wanting to handle raw meat in past present or near future. Squeamish stuff. Just like the time he plonked 2 kgs of live crabs in my kitchen sink and i was like 7 months preggers but to his credit, he ended up cleaning them for me. But thats another (horrifying) story. So there it was again, staring at me, almost challenging me against my own reluctance. Ok... i thought, i can handle this.


I got out the clean plastic board, a sharp knife i was saving for special occasion and in 2 minutes (that means going blue holding my breath) skinned off the meat from the bone and dumped them into a broth of water, meat tenderizer, garlic, ginger, one cinnamon stick, 3 anise seed, 7 cloves, a tsp turmeric and slammed the lid onto the pot. I scrubbed off the board in a frenzy and scrapped off the surface since my mind was imiganing excess of blood and carcass invisible stuck to its surface. I scrubbed the sink with loads of dishwashing liquid, scrubbed my hands with loads of medicated handwash and yes, now i am an offical compulsive obsessive, germophobic.

So yea, back to the mutton curry. I decided i was going to 'thank' my good husband for this 'challenge' by cooking him a perfectly healthy version, haha, compared to his mother's ghee, coconut milk, oil freeway, aka cholestrol laden and artery clogging version the son is accustommed to and thinks is good for him till he landed under the ECG machine. (why do we so love the unhealthy stuff).

So in went five stalks of finely chopped celery so he wont detect them which he didnt till i told him (after he finished licking off his fingers). In went a huge onion cut in rings. I skimmed off the oil from the meat itself floating on the broth. I blended 1 tbsp coriander, 1 tbsp fennel, 1 teaspoon cumin and toasted them without oil and dumped them into the broth together with 3 tbsp of chilly powder since he liked his curries to kickass (the next day of course). And also in went 2 chopped large potatoes, well, it would be mean to hold back his potatoes from a man, more so a curry lover. 1 hour 45 mins later, with a light seasoning of salt, a squeeze of lime juice(never underestimate acid in your curry, it just brings all the flavours together), 1/4 cup of skimmed milk and finally 3 chopped tomatoes (for the heart), i presented this to him with a side dish of light brinjal chutney (not a drop of oil too), served on pulongo (parboiled minus starch aka calories) rice. There, my good deed for today is done.

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