This slow cooked goat curry is one of my most requested ways to cook mutton. Everyone who tries it seems to love it! Slow cooking goat meat with Indian spices results in a perfectly tender, juicy, and flavorful curry. This mutton ghee roast is just a keeper of a recipe.
Every meal is a celebration.
My Amma (grandma) made sure I realized that. She was not what you’d consider pious or orthodox. She was a modern thinker when it was frowned upon. She didn’t believe in fasting or the regular norms of life. But, she respected her sons and daughter in laws who were religious and had beliefs of their own. After a month of festivities and vegetarian food, she made sure to make some of the most delicious non-vegetarians meal for her clan of six boys and a loving daughter in law.
When she decided she was going to make meat at home, it was a process. Every process was thoroughly enjoyed; she lived in the moment. Amma took great pride in going to her favorite butcher and buying the perfect cut of fresh meat. She sat in our back veranda on a wooden mannai(stool), washing and rewashing while her hands turned a pretty hue of orange from the turmeric. I wondered then, how the masala didn’t fall off the ammikkal(flat version of mortal and pestle). On a beautifully cured mann-chatti(clay pot), she cooked and fried. It took hours. Then she calls me, Ashu and sits me down. Carefully blowing it so it doesn’t scorch my tongue, she feeds me the first bite of the juicy, spicy, and flavorful curry. I’ll always remember that first bite. Maybe it was her hands that fed me or those hands that cooked it. I’ll never be able to recreate that. But, this is close.
My grandma was known for her meat dishes. Not many at our home enjoyed goat meat. Lamb chops were loved, but not goat curry. Me included. She would shop for the best meat at her favorite place and meticulously cook the curry. Slow cooked curry is the best, she said. I never got it then. My palette definitely had not blossomed back then….