Mutton Cutlets in a Tomato and Black Pepper Masala

Serves four with rice, breads and salads

Takes around 5 hours

An incredibly rich, gutsy curry to enjoy with lots of rice and parathas or chapati. After the long, slow cooking, the fat on the cutlets becomes deliciously wobbly and almost like bone marrow – if you’ve ever enjoyed the bone marrow dish at Hoppers, you’ll love this.

An oily dish that is not for the faint hearted but is completely delicious – serve with plenty of chopped red onion, fresh coriander and lime wedges. You’ll need a large, oven proof pot that will fit all 8 cutlets in.

This is one of a handful of Indian-inspired recipes we have created for our mutton collection. In a previous role, our marketing director, Nicola, was lucky enough to be the recipe tester for the Dishoom cookery book, From Bombay With Love. This meant spending six months working with Dishoom’s most experienced chefs, so that the restaurant’s best-loved dishes could be recreated in the home. And so, our own Indian-inspired recipes owe a great deal of thanks to chefs Naved, Rishi and Arun for sharing their expertise and patiently teaching Nicola how to properly brown onions and layer in spices.

1. Trim a little bit of fat off the cutlets – not much, leave plenty on. But remove around a half centimetre from each one so that you can use it to fry the onions.
2. Place the cutlets into a large bowl. Add the ginger and garlic pastes and the lemon juice and massage into the meat with your hands. Add the salt and dry spices from the marinade section and mix well. Let it sit to one side for 30 minutes while you ready the ingredients for the curry.
3. Heat the oven to 150°C
4. Place a large, oven-proof cooking pot over a low heat and add the reserved mutton fat while the pan is still cold. Allow this to render, turning occasionally.
5. Once all the fat has rendered, remove the little bits of skin that are left – these can be discarded.
6. Turn the heat up under the pot and add your preferred cooking oil – it will seem like a lot, but it is needed to properly fry and flavour everything. This is a special occasion dish, so don’t skimp!
7. Add the bay leaves, cardamom pods, mustard seeds, cloves and onions and stir-fry until the onions are deeply caramelised – this should take around 20 minutes to build up proper colour.
8. While the onions are caramelising, grind the black peppercorns in a pestle and mortar – you want coarsely ground rather than a fine powder.
9. Add the chopped tomatoes to the caramelised onions and cook until most of the water has evaporated and you can see pockets of oil appear on the top.
10. Add the mutton chops, ground black peppercorns and green chillies and stir fry until the mutton chops have changed colour, around 5-6 minutes.
11. Add enough water to just cover the chops – some parts may be above the surface slightly. Place a lid on the pot and put it in the oven. Cook for three hours, checking after two to see if it needs more liquid (it is a drier, oily curry rather than saucy).
12. Once the cook time is up, remove the pot from the oven and let it rest for 20 minutes.
13. While the meat is resting, put the dried fenugreek leaves into a small frying pan and place over a low heat. Toast until they crisp up – just slightly – then remove from the pan. It only takes a minute or so.
14. Crumble in the toasted fenugreek leaves, stir the pot well, adjust the seasoning and enjoy.

Marinade step
8 Whissendine mutton cutlets
1 tsp ground coriander
8 cloves garlic, minced to a paste
3cm piece ginger, minced to a paste
1 tsp fine salt
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp red chilli powder
1 tsp hot chilli powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp lemon juice

For the curry
100ml cooking oil
2 bay leaves
2 black cardamom pods
1 heaped tsp black mustard seeds
2 cloves
3 brown onions, finely chopped
2 tsp black peppercorns
2 tins chopped tomatoes
6 whole green chillies – try to find the Indian ones rather than mild jalapenos or super hot bird’s eye
1 tsp dried Fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi)