Mutton Aloo Jhola

A dish that makes every Sunday brunch special. Succulent pieces of goat meat cooked in an aromatic gravy of onions and whole spices. An absolute favourite of Odias.

Sundays at home are never satisfying if my mother has not cooked Mutton Aloo Jhola for lunch. The day starts with a light milk tea & some biscuits with the melody of old Bollywood songs in the background. Chitrahar/ Rangoli (Television shows) were our favourite source of music on a Sunday morning. Followed by a quick easy breakfast to save time for the upcoming elaborate “Sunday lunch”.

The Sunday lunch would consist of the hero dish, Mutton Aloo Jhola (a spicy mouth-watering goat meat curry with large chunks of potatoes), some saaga (leafy vegetable preparation), chokhas (basic vegetable mash) & some salad with boiled rice. The curry takes a couple of hours to cook. The spices need to be carefully measured to give the right consistency to the gravy. Hence, the preparations start early. Both my parents would be busy in the kitchen preparing for this meal. Father would be given the task of prepping the meat and my mother would prepare the side dishes. All of us siblings would be waiting for the moment when our father would call us to taste the meat just before turning it into a gravy. Mutton is generally made in the pressure cooker and the cooker stays unopened until it’s served with the rice. We would all be waiting for this moment to predict the taste by smelling the aroma & looking at the colour of the gravy when the lid is removed. My mouth is already watering while I pen this down.

Every time I prepare this dish, all these childhood memories come flooding back to me. Today I am making my mother’s mutton curry. I have made the dish in my dutch oven because I love it very much. This can be made using a pressure cooker also and I will make another video some other time. Let’s get started!!

Prep time | 15 mins

Cooking time | 2 hrs

Difficulty level | Intermediate - advance

Base Ingredients

Fat rich mutton (with bone), 500 grams

Potatoes 4 large, cut into wedges

Mutton Marination Ingredients

Onion, ¼ cup, sliced

Salt, ½ tbsp (or as per taste)

Turmeric powder, ½ tbsp

Mustard oil, ½ tbsp

Gravy Ingredients

Mustard oil, 3 tbsp

Sugar, 1tsp

Dried bay leaf, medium, 3-4 pieces

Cinnamon, broken, 4-5 sticks

Green cardamom, 3-4 pieces

Cloves, 4-5 pieces

Cumin seeds, 1 tsp

Onion, 3 onions, sliced

Ginger garlic paste, 3 tbsp

Turmeric powder, ½ tbsp

Cumin powder, 1 tbsp

Coriander powder, 1 tbsp

Kashmiri red chilli powder, 1 tbsp

Green chillies, 4, slit in halves

Salt, 1 tbsp

Water to avoid burning

Hot water, 4 ½ cup

meat masala, ½ tbsp

Coriander leaves, 1/4th cup

First, marinate the mutton with all the ingredients. Massage the meat for 10 mins. Keep it aside.

To make the curry, heat a kadhai/ dutch oven. Add mustard oil. Once the oil is hot, add sugar and wait for it to caramelise.

Adding sugar brings out the vibrancy of the curry and enhances the flavour.

Then add bay leaf, green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon & cumin seeds. Wait for the cumin to splutter before adding the sliced onion.

Now add the ginger-garlic paste and cook the masala until the raw smell disappears. Then add turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder. Add water to avoid the curry paste from burning & sticking to the bottom of the pan. Keep frying the curry paste until you see oil starts separating from it.

Now is the time to add mutton to the cooker. Add salt to taste. Give it a good mix, so that the mutton is well coated with the masala.

Cover& cook it for the next 10 minutes. Open the lid and stir it well. Cover & cook for another 10 mins. Now, most of the water would have been released from the meat. Now cook it without a lid until most of the water evaporates. Give it an occasional stir so that it does not stick to the bottom.

A good quality mutton will always release a lot of water.

Next, add the hot water to the curry. Add the slit green chillies and cover the lid.

Cook for 20 mins. Open the lid & add the potatoes to the kadhai. Give it a good mix. Cover the lid and cook it until the meat is soft. For me, it took around 40 mins in the dutch oven.

Once it is cooked, add the meat masala & coriander leaves. Mix it well and Odia style Mutton Aloo Jhola/ curry is ready to be served now.