Bengali mutton curry

Right, so 3 months into 2016 and i muster up the effort to do a blog post. Well, i have my excuses. We moved into our new home end of December and then pushed off to India for a month. Came back to a house filled with boxes, no storage, no curtains and no enthusiasm. I should have been all thrilled and excited considering i was going to set up my new home but the constant arguments with Ro regarding what goes where, which colours suit better, why the earth is round etc etc made me lose interest in this whole scenario. So i just got on with life and left all my baggage right there (pun intended!) 

I think he kind of sensed the lack of interest, and pulled back a bit which is when i got in and absolutely took advantage. But even then i realised i kept asking him for opinions which in turn lead to more fights. Nisha, haven't you heard of something called taking decisions on your own??? Apparently not!! Anyways, I still have boxes strewn all over the floor, but its a bit more bearable now. I may have my own house, but tell me i can go back to Greenwich any day and I'd leave in a heart beat. I am so not cut out for suburban life and damn the owners who decided to sell that beautiful, beautiful apartment we spent 8 years in. (shedding a lil tear now).

The internet!!!! Since its a new built, internet has not been sorted out. We have been given a temporary solution and we seem to run out of the given allowance within a week. So uploading, editing pictures is an issue. This actually is a very lame excuse because im still on limited data and i managed a blog post!

Then there is Chaiparty, which is doing pretty well and keeping us all occupied. We had 2 Bengali feasts back to back because people were on wait list and its the first time i actually got to taste some of the traditional Bong food. S was the main chef and G and I were sous chefs, obeying her orders and trying hard to not goof up. I was so inspired by all that Bong-ness, I decided to give the mutton curry a go.

In spite of S giving me a run down of the procedure and the recipe, I still had to google a recipe and since it was my first time, decided to just stick to it. I'm going to write down her grandma's mutton curry recipe (which was a big hit at our supper club BTW) and make it the next time. We had this with steamed white rice, that's it! I had to give Ro the stare when he asked me 'aren't there any veggies to go with it.' Like seriously, after slow cooking the damn thing for close to an hour, he wants a side dish!!!

It was a very mutton-y curry, especially the gravy, but that could be because of the type of meat i got. The chunks of potato are simply fab and the curry tastes even better the next day. I am assuming this is a variation of the mutton curry known to Bengali households, and what they call kosha mangsho. Either ways, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Recipe adapted from here (serves 3)

Mutton- 500gms (with bone and cut into small pieces)

Yoghurt- 4 tbsp

Lemon juice- 1/2 tbsp

Ginger garlic paste- 2 tbsp

Green chilli- 1, finely chopped (adjust according to taste)

Tomato paste- 1/2 tbsp

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp

Kashmiri chilli powder- 1 tsp

Garam masala- 1/2 tsp + 1/4 to sprinkle at the every end

Oil- 3 tbsp for the marinade + 3 tbsp for cooking 

Potatoes- 3 medium ones, peeled and cut into big chunks

Cinnamon- 1, 1 inch stick

Cloves- 3 to 4

Cardamom- 3 to 4

Black peppercorn- 8

Bay leaf- 1

Sugar- 1/2 tsp

Onion- 1 large, finely chopped

Salt- to taste

Marinate the mutton with the 9 ingredients below it (using only 3 tbsp of the oil).

Cover with cling film and marinate it in the refrigerator, overnight for best results, or at least for a minimum of 3 to 4 hrs.

Bring to room temperature before cooking.

In a pressure cooker heat the remaining 3 tbsp of oil and fry the potatoes they they brown around the edges. Drain on to paper towels.

Infuse the oil with the whole spices- cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, peppercorn and bay leaf.

Add the sugar and let it caramelise.

Throw in the onions and on medium heat cook till they turn a golden brown. This would take around 15 minutes or so.

Add the marinated mutton, mix it together with the onions and cook on medium-high heat till you see the water drying and the oil separating.

This process can take close to an hour so make sure you keep checking the meat in between and scraping off the base and edges so that the meat doesn't burn.

Once the meat becomes a dark brown in colour, and mostly dryish in consistency, add 1 cup warm water, the fried potatoes, salt to taste and cover and pressure cook for about 2 to 3 whistles or till the meat is completely cooked.

Serve hot with steamed rice or luchi- a poori like bread.

Notes: It is originally made with mustard oil which imparts a distinct flavour i presume. I didnt have any at hand.

If you don't own a pressure cooker, continue cooking the meat on medium heat, checking water in between and adding the potato towards the end.

A lot of oil gets released. So on day 2 i drained a bit. Sacrilegious i know!

Chaiparty (London supper club)

The pretty posters were by Suchi

I'm a little late in posting about the chaiparty we hosted a while back, but as they say, better late than never right? We had this idea brewing (pun intended) in our minds for so long and finally after almost a year we were finally able to execute it. Supper clubs are popping up every second in London and although this idea was on the lines of a supper club, we wanted it to be more of an experience than just the food.

Chaiparty, as the name suggests is all about chai and an excuse to get together and chat, dance, play games and of course enjoy the food. Since it was our first stint with an event like this, we decided to keep it 'by invite' only. On the guest list were food bloggers, media professionals and food enthusiasts who all enthusiastically took part in the festivities. The dress code was Indian and we all dressed up in sarees, skirts, salwars, kurta's and lehengas. It was at my house in South East London and we decorated my tiny apartment with all sorts of Indian-themed paraphernalia and in the process managed to drive our husbands crazy.

The guests were all welcomed in the Indian traditional way with a small aarti, a sort of blessing, and then gifted colourful bangles and bindis. Everyone was sportive and courageous enough to actually wear a saree and even keep it on till the very end. We had a few fun games lined up, like a treasure hunt of sorts where we used twitter and the #chaiparty to give out clues, which we all had fun doing. Then there was the what's in your purse game where we picked out a few random, bizarre things and whoever had the most number f items in their bags won. Believe me, quite a few of them had most of the items :). Then we of course selected the best dressed which was quite hard to pick, considering everyone looked just as gorgeous as the other.

The menu consisted of dishes from all over India, and we gave it a fusion twist, but keeping in tact the traditional flavours. We also gave snazzy names for the dishes, something we are pretty proud of. Take a look at the menu to know what I'm talking about :)

We also had some lovely gifts and goodies sponsored by amazing brands and i cant thank you enough for the support you have shown us. We had Waitrose Wines sending over a case of assorted champagnes and sparkling wines which we put to full use by making the plum and chai bellini. Priscilla, winner of the best dressed also won a Seriously Peachy Dessert wine sponsored by Waitrose, an absolute fav dessert wine perfect with some citric desserts. There was unlimited tea sponsored by Tea India, an upmarket brand of chai which comes in three delicious flavours Masala Chai, Cardamom Chai and Vanilla Chai. They also gave each of our guests a small goody bag with all their teas and recipe cards for some cooking inspiration. Dessert, a very important part of a meal, wouldn't have been complete without Devnaa sponsoring some gorgeous chai truffles that were gobbled up in no time.

The uber cool online gift store Dotcomgiftshop sponsored a pretty tea pot, quite fitting with our theme for the evening, from their Moorish Stoneware collection. Erin has been thoroughly putting it to good use. Two favourite authors of mine Ottlenghi and Madhur Jaffrey were also present that evening in the form of cookbooks, both sponsored by Ebury Publishing, and won by Hayley and Natalie from Wild Card PR. 

This was our first foray into the whole supper club scene in London and we are sure going to have a couple more lined up this year, with the next one in March for Holi. We shall put up details closer to the date but it would be great if you can extend all your support in this new and exciting endeavour of ours. Thanks in advance :)

The #chaiparty team