Pasanda is a Mughlai dish of meat in rich gravy. Raw meat, coated with yogurt and few spice seasonings, cooks itself in ‘dum’ i.e. in a closed vessel on low heat. The meat could be any of mutton, beef or chicken. And whenever almond nuts are used in the preparation; it is called ‘Badam Pasanda’.

As a Bengali I just love to eat any preparation of mutton. Here goat meat is generally known to us as Mutton. But unfortunately I don’t find goat meat here in Europe, so as an alternative, have to be content with Lamb meat. In fact this time I prepared the dish with lamb meat, which otherwise can well be replaced with mutton or chicken, following the same recipe.

As we all know “Mughlai food” is pretty rich in content, one should not have it just regularly. However during festive season, we can let our daily food habit break loose and compromise a bit. So we can enjoy ‘Mutton Badam Pasanda’ at our home during Durga Puja and perhaps either ‘saptami’ or ‘nabami’ would be ideal for it. 🙂

Ingredients to serve 4 :

1. Boneless pieces of mutton – 400 gm.
2. Garlic paste – 1 tbspoon
3. Brown onion or Beresta out of 1 medium size onion
4. Plain yogurt – 250gm.
5. Melted Ghee/Clarified Butter – 3½ tbspoon
6. Red chilli powder – 1½ teaspoon (adjust according to your taste)
7. Black pepper powder – 1 teaspoon
8. Cumin powder – ½ tbspoon
9. Sugar – 1 teaspoon
10. Clove – 2-3
11. Cardamom – 2-3 pods
12. Garam masala powder – ½ teaspoon
13. Almond flake/slice – 2 tbspoon + extra for garnishing
14. Salt to taste

Procedure :

Mix together the meat, garlic paste, yogurt, chilli powder, pepper powder, cumin powder, sugar, cloves, cardamom and ghee in a kadai or heavy bottomed frying pan.

Put the kadai on gas over very low flame and cover it with a lid. Let the meat cook on ‘dum’ i.e. in air tight condition on low heat. There is no need to add water, the meat will cook by yogurt, ghee and the water released by itself.

Grind the brown onion into a fine dust.

As the meat gets cooked (it took more than one hour for me) add brown onion powder, garam masala powder, almond flakes and salt. Give it a good stir and again let it cook for another 4-5 minutes putting the lid of the pan.

Now transfer the meat in a serving bowl and garnish with almond flakes.

It will be best served with ‘rumali roti’ (the thinnest bread in the world)  in my opinion. But making ‘rumali roti’ is not the easiest task and I didn’t try it at home yet. So I served mutton badam pasanda with Misti Pulao. It will be equally enjoyable with roti, paratha or puri.

Note :

1. You can use whole almonds instead of flakes. Just peel and boil the almonds before using. I have almond flakes in my stock so I used that.
2. Mutton takes time to get cooked. In order to cook it faster marinate it with green papaya paste overnight. Green papaya paste works as a natural meat tenderizer.