How much can you experiment with your favourite dishes, they still remain dear in traditional forms. Likewise, although I have tried so many innovative dishes with mutton, mutton kosha is something most alluring to me. ‘Kosha Mangsho’ is a rich preparation of mutton with a thick brownish gravy almost dried. No need to add additional water here, the mutton gets cooked by its own fat and water coming out of it. Cashew nut and poppy seed paste makes the gravy sublime, so does the ghee as well. Being a slow cooked dish, patience is fully rewarded at the end. Recall the good old days when the ‘Golbari’, the food joint at North Kolkata was famous for its ‘Kosha Mangsho. In fact it still is and favourite to the Kolkatans. Here I just tried to replicate Golbari’s ‘kosha mangsho’ in my own way.

Ingredients to serve 2-3 :

1. Mutton – 500 gm. (medium size pieces)
2. Green papaya paste – 2 tbspoon
3. Onion – 2 (large)
4. Ginger paste – 1 tbspoon
5. Garlic paste – 1 tbspoon
6. Green chilli – 2
7. Yogurt – 2 tbspoon heaped
8. Turmeric powder – ½ teaspoon
9. Red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon
10. Garam masala powder – ½ teaspoon
11. Whole Garam Masala ( cinnamon – 2-3 small pieces, green cardamom – 2, clove – 2, Black pepper – 4-5, nutmeg – 1 small piece, mace – 1 small piece )
12. Dry red chilli – 2
13. Bay leaf – 2 – 3 (small)
14. Cashew nut – 5 (soaked into warm water)
15. Poppy seeds – 1 tbspoon
16. Salt to taste
17. Mustard oil – ½ cup + 2 tbspoon
18. Ghee or Clarified butter – 2 tbspoon (melted)

Procedure :

Wash the mutton pieces well and marinate them with green papaya paste, ginger & garlic paste, yogurt, salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala powder and 2 tbspoon of mustard oil. Refrigerate the marinated mutton for at least 4-5 hours. I have marinated it for overnight.  Take out the mutton from the refrigerator at least 1 hour before cooking so that it can attain the room temperature.

Cut 1 onion into thin slices. Heat the mustard oil in a kadai and fry the onion slices till crispy, golden brown to make ‘beresta’. Put the gas off and transfer the fried onions onto a paper towel, let them cool and then grind them to a fine paste. Find the detailed procedure of making ‘beresta‘ under ‘Useful Supplementary’ tab.

Make a fine paste with remaining 1 onion and 2 green chillies.

Make another paste with cashew nuts and poppy seeds.

Crush the whole spices into a coarse dust using a ‘mortar & pestle’.

Again heat the remaining oil in the kadai and add ghee into it.

Add crushed spices, dry red chilli and bay leaf into it. Saute the spices for few seconds.

Then add onion – chilli paste, cook till the paste turns golden brown in colour and starts releasing oil.

Now add marinated mutton into it and mix well with the spices. Fry the mutton on high flame fro 2-3 minutes. Then cover the kadai with a lid and put the flame on low. Let the mutton cook for 30 minutes in this way. Keep a watchful eye and stir occasionally so that the mutton doesn’t stick to the bottom.

After 30 minutes add beresta paste and mix it well with the mutton.

Again cook for another 10-15 minutes over low flame putting the lid on.

Then add cashew nut & poppy seed paste and again cook for 10-15 minutes till the mutton gets tender.

Put the gas off and serve ‘Mutton Kosha’ with Mishti Pulao/ luchi/ roti/ paratha.

Note :

1. Mutton pieces containing a bit of fat and bone is ideal for this recipe.
2. However, in this recipe the mutton should cook in its own fat and water. Keep 1 cup of warm water by your side. Add water little at a time (2-3 tbspoon) during the whole process of cooking the mutton if it seems to get burned from the bottom.

You can also like few more mutton recipes in this blog :

• Mutton Chanb
• Mutton Nihari – a traditional Muhglai Dish
• Mutton Badam Pasanda
• Mutton Rezala