I made mutton curry for lunch on Sunday. Decided to go with Aalagadda Mamsam – a classic South Indian mutton curry with potatoes in it. I chopped three large onions and set them to brown with a bayleaf. While this was happening, I started getting the base ready for my gravy. I ground up around 125 gm of poppy seeds (khus khus) and half a coconut. I would have added some dry red chillies to the paste but felt too unindustrious to pull off the stems. Yeah. I know. I’m embarrassingly lazy.

I added a little water and ground the two ingredients to a paste. Once the onions were browned nicely, I chucked in three tablespoons of ginger garlic paste dissolved in a little water. I cooked it up on a high flame and added about a teaspoon of turmeric powder. I let the GGP get browned a little and then added the coconut-khus-khus mixture. Now this took a while. I let the masala cook on a steady medium flame and kept stirring it now and again. In the meanwhile, I wandered aimlessly around the kitchen and discovered a bottle of apple cider that I’d picked from Dharamshala last year and forgotten about. Without further ado, I opened it and poured myself a bucketful.

Settled down in front of my TV to watch Austin Powers – Goldmember (for the 242nd time). Mike Myers really cracks me up. I wish they’d make a fourth Austin Powers film. Anyway, I got up after a few min and added a good amount of red chilli powder and some garam masala powder to my umm.. masala. Gave the thing a good stirring in the pan and this is what it looked like –

I let it take its own sweet time getting browned and it was another ten minutes before it left the sides of the pan and really came together. I added the mutton and let it cook for about seven minutes on a high flame. Then I chucked in 200 ml of whipped curd. Seasoned it with salt and added a little bit of water. Slammed the cooker shut and went back to my movie. Finished the rest of my cider and felt good about it.

Twenty minutes after the whistle, I opened the cooker and tipped in 6 potatoes cut into large pieces. Let it sit on the stove for ten more minutes and it was done. Let the pressure go down and served it up with rice. Was too lazy to put it in a bowl and take a pic, so heres a shot of the finished product in the cooker – again.

Ate it with rice and then took a coma. I don’t take naps on Sundays. I take comas.

Thought I should mention the launch of my MMA blog. Take a look at www.madonionslicer.com/mma.

Over and out.