Seyal Gosht curry with Chapati recipe!

Happy 2015 to you blog buddies!

I trust you had a great Christmas and New Year and are all sticking to your new years resolutions? I'm betting that a fair few of you have taken up a dry January challenge, or decided to watch what you eat or get a bit more exercise ( judging by how busy my local gym is at the moment it seems like everybody is trying to lose those extra pounds put on over the holidays!)

With this in mind I thought I'd do something reasonably healthy for my first blog of 2015. I wouldn't say that the recipes I've done in this blog will make you shed blubber as you eat but I've made a dish that will satisfy a grumbling stomach and isn't loaded with fat or complex carbs. If there's one thing I cant stand it's bland, boring food that, while being good for your figure, does nothing for the tastebuds.
So, I've decided to do a good old fashioned curry. Now, I know what you're thinking. When you go fetch your favourite spicy treat from your local curry house you get it home and every tray has leaked its oil all over the bag it's difficult to see how curries can be remoteley healthy, but with good fresh ingredients and just a little effort on your part you can have your curry and eat it with a clear concience!

The only oil in this recipe is a couple of tablespoons at the start of the process to get things going. As I'm using mutton for my recipe you may also get a little fat from the meat in there as well,  if you're trying to cut out fat almost completely ( you shouldn't do really as your body needs a bit of fat to function properly) then you can trim the meat you're using to within an inch of its life, it won't have any impact on the flavour. You can use lamb if you prefer, or if you cant get hold of mutton.

The method for this dish is really simple too, theres no browning of the meat or making curry bases before you start, It's just an easy double marinate then bung it all in the pot to slow cook. The only thing I will say is a bit of a let down for me is the photos I took of the finished curry with its accompanying chapati's, I'm a bit out of practice with the blog and try as I might I couldn't get the pictures to look anything more than just a photo of a curry. Boring pictures aside though, this is a really tasty dish so I decided to write it up anyway.

One more thing before we start, and thats the chapati's. I love making these simple Indian breads and they were probably the very first thing I ever cooked as a 6 year old, standing on an old wooden beer crate in front of the electric oven at my nan and grandad's flat in Walsall, putting the chapati's that me and my younger brother had helped to make straight onto the electric rings to cook, It's a vivid memory that without a doubt sparked my interest in all things of a culinary nature and my love of Asian food.
My Grandad was a lover of Indian foods and used to send me to Asian shops in Walsall with a list of exotic ingredients to buy. I'd give the list to the shopkeeper and he would know instantly that I was "India Bailey's grandson" I'd run back from the shops, usually with a 10p mix of sweets for myself  and sit and watch him apply these spices to pretty much everything he cooked! ( he also used to send me and my brother to the butchers to get a "bag of bones for the dog" which, along with the indian spices went into the pot to make the curry, the poor dog never got a look in!)

Well, that's enough reminising, lets get on with the recipe!

Mutton Seyal Gosht Curry (makes about 6 good portions.)

Equipment:

Food processor/blender. ( you can use a stick blender if that's all you've got, it'll just take a bit longer.)

3 Large plastic mixing bowls.

Large Cast Iron pot or "dutch pot" or large saucepan with lid.

Large frying pan.

Wooden spoon.

Ingredients:

6 mutton or lamb chops.

Approx 1kg of stewing mutton or lamb, bone in.( you can use boneless if you want but this will be around twice as expensive and you won't get the marrow from the bones which add a lovely richness to the curry.)

1 kg of brown onions. 

2 tins of chopped tomatoes.

400ml of set yoghurt, Greek style is good if you cant get Indian yoghurt.

Large bunch of fresh coriander.

Fresh chillies. ( I've used one scotch bonnet and one naga chilli but you can use whatever chillies you like. If you're going to use the usual fresh green chillies and you don't like it too hot then I'd use 2-3.)

Large piece of ginger ( about 2 thumbs in size.) peeled and finely chopped.

 
 4-5 garlic cloves, finely chopped.

1 large piece of cassia bark (sometimes called Chinese cinnamon) or 2 sticks of regular cinnamon.

2 whole blade mace.

4 bay leaves.

6 cardamon pods.

12 whole black peppercorns.

6 whole cloves.

4-5 teaspoons of coriander powder.

1 tablespoon of cumin powder, or whole cumin, ground in a pestle and mortar.

1 teaspoon of turmeric powder.

1 tablespoon of chilli powder. ( or you can use mild paprika if you don't want too much heat.)

1 teaspoon of salt.

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

4 tablespoons of water.

Method:

Roughly chop the onions and puree them in the food processor. Add a few at a time while the processor is running to get a really smooth puree.
 set aside in a bowl.














Now add the tinned tomatoes to the processor ( no need to wash it out first!) and blitz them also to a puree. Pour out into a separate bowl.





 
   







Next add the yoghurt, coriander, including the stalks, and the chillies to the processor and blitz until smooth.












Pour the yoghurt, coriander and chilli mixture into a large bowl and bung in the mutton pieces and chops.  Give this a good mix round so all of the meat is coated and pop into the fridge to marinate for at least an hour. ( I let mine marinate for around 3 hours.)

Heat half the veg oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the pureed onions. Cook gently for around 20 minutes, stirring from time to time, you don't want to colour the onions, just get rid of some of the moisture and the rawness of them.













Remove the cooked onion puree back into a bowl, give the frying pan a wipe and add the remaining oil. add the whole spices and gently fry for 2-3 minutes so they release their fragrant oils, then add the chopped ginger and garlic. after a couple of minutes add the ground spices and stir in the water until combined.

 Add the onion puree back into the frying pan, then the pureed tomatoes. Season with the salt.
Mix together well and cook for 5 minutes.

Leave this mixture to cool completely then add it to the marinating mutton. Mix together well and put back in the fridge to marinate again. You can leave it like this covered in the fridge overnight if you want to but I left it for around 3 hours.

Finally, get your large saucepan/cast iron pot on a medium high heat on the hob and bung in the whole contents of the bowl from the fridge. Give everything a good stir and after 5 minutes turn the heat down to low, pop the lid on and cook for 2 hours or so. You can cook it for longer if you want the meat to fall off the bone but I like it so it still has a bit of resistance to it.

When the curry is almost done you can make the chapatis:

Chapati recipe ( makes around 12 chapatis.)

Equipment:

Kitchen scales.

mixing bowl.

Rolling pin.

6-7" bowl to cut round.

Cast iron flat skillet or large frying pan.

Pastry board or clean work surface.  

Ingredients:

350g wholemeal flour.

1 good pinch of salt.

Approx 100ml of cold water.

2 tablespoons of clarified butter or Ghee or olive oil ( not extra virgin.)

Method:

 Add the salt to the flour and half of the water. Mix together and add the butter or oil. 
Press the dough together with your hands until you have a rough ball, you may need to add some more water.

Once you have a fairly smooth dough remove from the bowl and knead vigorously for 10 minutes until smooth, warm and elastic. 

Rest the dough in a cool place for 15 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface with the rolling pin to about 3 mm thick.



  












Cut out your chapatis by placing a bowl on top ( I used a cereal bowl) and cutting round it.

You can gather up the remaining dough and roll out again to cut some more until you have about 10-12 chapatis ready to go.











Heat the skillet or frying pan to medium high and pop in the chapatis one at a time. I like to flip each one over a few times so they get nice and evenly coloured.

They will puff up slightly when they are almost done. Keep them warm in the oven whilst you finish the batch.

Serve them up warm ( you can brush each one on one side with a little butter or ghee if you like) alongside the curry!

There you go then. Sorry about the photos but I really did have to squeeze this recipe in whilst I was on my day off from work so didn't have time to make it look good.. Next time I'll be doing a lovely colourful winter pudding for you to try so the pictures will be a lot better!

If you are local to where I live in Cannock then please keep an eye out for a new menu launch at the Bank bar as I'm going to be revamping it soon, and if you haven't already then please "like" the Bank bar's face book page for some very interesting events coming up!

Until next time then friends!

Happy cooking!

 

Mat.