Recipe : Suriani Curried Ribs

This recipe is an adaptation from Lathika George's - The Suriani Kitchen

In the book, the recipe is on page 117 as Aunty's Curried Ribs. I played around with the recipe a bit (as I always do) adjusting quantities and compressing steps.

The book is wonderful by the way, and if you want to cook authentic Kerala food at home, I would highly recommend it. Its one of the best Suriani cookbooks available. I'm still on a quest for Mrs B F Varghese's book though.(any pointers will be appreciated)

Ingredients:
1 tsp oil
1 cup chopped onions
2 tomatoes chopped
1.5 tbsp corriander powder (dhaniya)
1 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1 tsp peppercorns (kali mirch)
3 cardamom pods (elaichi)
1" cinnamon (dalchini)
4 whole cloves (laung)

1 kg mutton (with bones) - I used double the quantity of mutton recommended in the book as I didn't want the spices to be too heavy (because of husbands temporary diet restrictions), but for true flavour, you may like to use 1/2 kilo
salt to taste

For the Tempering:

1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp mustard seeds (rai)
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots or onions
8 curry leaves

For the Coconut Paste:

1 cup fresh grated coconut
4 green chillies
1 tbsp fresh ginger
2 tbsps fresh garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

Method:
Coarsely grind together the ingredients for the coconut paste.

Powder all the whole spices together.

Heat the regular cooking oil in a deep pot.
Add onions and fry for 1-2 mins.
Add tomatoes and cook till soft.
Add the spice powders and the powdered whole spices and fry till the oil rises to the top. (this indicates that the masala is cooked.

Add the coconut paste and mix well.

Add the salt and mutton.
Add enough water to cover the mutton and mix well so the masala and water are well blended.
Cover and cook till mutton is done.
Open and cook till the masala dries up and a thick gravy coats the meat (semi gravy consistency).

Heat the coconut oil in your tempering ladle (small skillet)
Add mustard seeds, when they splutter, add onions and curry leaves and fry till onions turn brown.

Pour the tempering over the meat and mix well.

Serve hot with rice or rotis.

For some reason, when the dish was cooking, the fragrance reminded me of Mum's kurlyachi kudhi (crab curry) The masala for that is completely different, but thats what I kept remembering. hmm?

This is a labor intensive recipe, with grating the coconut, pounding spices, grinding the coconut paste. But its worth the effort. Husband loved it.

I will not be cooking any more Kerala and Manglorean labor intensive dishes now until the end of summer. Its just too hot to do that anymore.