Ghoulash on a Stormy Night

I am writing this on a Monday morning, rather begrudgingly, I usually do all my writing over the weekend, but this one was super hectic and all I managed to do was a cook a couple of decent meals for the family and finally go to a canteen style restaurant I have been dying to eat at. The weather has been dull and miserable, with an occasional smattering of rain, very annoying. The clouds need to open up and pour or shut their faces and glide by, the piddle like pitter patter is useless and depressing! Though it makes for perfect ‘food craving’ season… the rains make me want soul food as much as winters do. So instead of moping about the grim situation outside, I decided to brighten things inside. Saturday was going to be bright food day; I personally love colours in my food, that’s what attracts me to Pan Asian cuisine, the al dente bits of coloured peppers, the greens, the salmon pink of the meats and the white of spring onions. These days with the opinions on MSG, I really feel like my Asian recipes don’t taste as good, may well be a psychological thing but I cook Asian food much less now.

One given when it comes to soul food is at least one dish of red meat. My family also has a special affinity to tomatoes and they definitely need rice. So I decided to make Shirazi style ‘desi’ Ghoulash. This dish is more like an Iranian chicken curry I once had, tomato base, light chicken and very wholesome. But since I tend to use bacon sometimes and make a curry out it, I like to call is a Ghoulash (apologies to Hungarians, foodies massacre each other’s foods all the time, it’s for the greater good at the end of the day!). I don’t use boneless meats, by principle! Only if it’s a must in recipes do I succumb, I do a lot of my Chinese stir fry’s with smaller cuts of chicken, rather than going boneless. I feel bones add a lot of flavour and natural moisture and fat to the dish. So I make this recipe with meat on the bone, you can try boneless; a lot of people feel it works better. I serve this with potato wedges (from scratch) and herbed rice.

Shirazi Style Desi Ghoulash

½ kg Mutton
2 tbsp oil
2 white onions, minced or pureed
4 large tomatoes cubed
4-6 garlic pods crushed
2-3 tbsp tomato puree
1 bayleaf
2-3 cloves
2-3 tsp crushed pepper
½ tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin powder
Salt
1 cup Water for gravy

Brown the onions and garlic in oil, add the bayleaf and cloves. Fry for a minute or so and add the mutton. Toss it up on high for a minute, turn down the heat, add the cumin and chilli powder and salt, stir and cover. Use a heavy bottomed pan or a pressure cooker, so you can cook the meat for 25-30 minutes on low. After about 15 minutes of cooking, add the tomato cubes and the puree. Stir and keep covered, only stir 2-3 times in the 30 minutes. Top with the pepper powder, add half cup water and pressure cook if you need the meat to flower (I realize how gross that sounds but what I mean is, the meat opens up and softens, doesn’t remain tight and compact!). Check the salt before you serve, if you feel the gravy is too tangy, feel free to add a tsp or two of sugar, its cuts the tang and brings out the pepper.

From Scratch Potato Wedges

4 large potatoes
Oil for deep frying
Masala Mix:
1 tsp. Oregano/Italian seasoning
½ tsp garlic salt or celery salt
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp salt.

Cut the potatoes in wedges, deep fry till soft and brown. Toss in the masala mix and serve hot.

Herb Rice:

1 large bowl of cooked white rice
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsbp very fine celery leaf

Heat the butter, throw in the rice, herbs and celery, toss on high heat for 3-4 minutes and serve right away.

So this is the meal we had the other day, it was superfluous if I may say so. The rain was beating hard in the balcony, we almost wished it were lashing on the window, to add to the ‘dak bungalow’ rainy effect that this food had already created. This is one dish I love to combine with a nice spicy rum or a fruity red wine, the pepper and tomato combo is perfect for some with dinner drinking!