Bengali Kasha Mangsho ~ My valentine's favorite

As this is the month of love and my event, "Spotlight" themed as Valentine's Treat, I'll post the most favorite food of my man, love of my life. He is very fond of meat, especially Goat meat/Mutton and I can't blame him for this. We, bengalis are very much fond of this meat, specially boys. My man can live on this meat only. This meat preperation is one of the most favorite dish of not only my man, but all bongs love this.
 "Kasha Mangsho" is a semi-dry slow-cooked goat meat preperation in bengali style. "Kasha" means frying and cooking the meat with spices in very low heat for long time until meat is done with a thickish gravy, that means a slow-cooked meat dish and that is the reason, it tastes so finger-licking good. This dish is best tasted with Paratha or Naan. There is another type of goat meat recipe in bengali style which is just opposite to this, with a good amount of curry and with less "kasha" or frying the meat, which I posted earlier here, we call it "Pathar mangshor Jhol(Goat meat curry)". Any way, in recipe I'll elaborate the process for better understanding. To give you the idea, here is a pic, which I took in a hurry. Promise, I Will post a better pic next time I cook this dish. Now, let's move to the recipe....

You Need :
Goat Meat/mutton ~ around 500 gms.
Potato : 2-3 (cut into half, in big chunks)[adding potato is optional, but my man's another fav. thing is potato]
Tomato : 3(medium, pureed)
Mustard Oil : 4 tblsp.
Salt to taste
Bengali garam masala powder : 2 tsp.
Ghee : 1 tblsp.
For marination :
Onion : 5(medium)
Ginger : 2 inch piece
Garlic : 6-7 fat cloves
Green Chilli : 1
Turmeric powder : 2-3 heaped tsp.
Cumin powder : 2 tsp.
Coriander Powder : 3-4 tsp.
Red chilli Powder : 2-3 tsp.(as per your taste)
Yogurt/dahi : 2 tblsp.
Little Salt
For Tempering :
Sugar : 1 tblsp.
Bay leaves : 2
Cardamom : 3-4
Cloves : 5-6
Cinnamon : 2(1" stick)
Black pepper kernels : 7-8

How To :

• Make a paste of onion-ginger-garlic-green chilli. 
• Cut the mutton pieces in medium size chunks. Wash and drain excess water. In a bowl, take the above mentioned onion paste and rest of the ingredients under the marination. Mix everything well with meat pieces. Overnight marination is recommended, but try to marinate for at least 4-6 hours.
• Now heat the whole oil in wide vessel, fry the potato pieces in medium heat with little salt until brown from all sides. Keep them aside.
• In the same vessel, add sugar, wait till it caramelizes, then add the other tempering ingredients one at a time, starting from bay leaves, when they start to pop, add marinated mutton pieces. Immediately start stirring and mixing, in medium heat let it cook for sometime, cover with a lid.
• You will see, water is releasing from the mutton after sometime, keep stirring from time to time, and let it cook until water dries up and rawness of meat goes away and the meat will turn little darker. Do the whole cooking in medium-low heat. This way of cooking is called "kasha". 
• Add fried potato pieces at this time and cook with the meat. If you cook this way, it will take at least an hour and half to get the meat cooked. We can faster the process, cooking the meat after doing the "kasha" process, in pressure cooker. If you want to slow cook in a pot, you can do that too, but don't forget to stir time to time.
• Add about 1 cup of hot water(enough water to cook the meat only, as this is thick gravy dish) into the mutton, season with salt and close the pressure cooker. Cook for 7-8 whistles or you have a cooker without whistle like mine, in medium heat cook for about 10-12 minutes. Open the cooker to check if the meat is done or not. If not done, cook for some more time.
• What I do, I cook until the meat is just done, in P. Cooker for about 10 minutes, then again put the pan on the gas and slow cook until it is fully done and has a thicker gravy coated with all mutton pieces and the oil is oozing out from the side. Then you have the peerfect "Kasha mangsho". Lastly, sprinkle the garam masala powder and ghee on top. Mix well and remove from heat.
• Your Mutton Kasha is ready to devour with some paratha, roti or Naan.

I'm sending this to my ongoing event, "Spotlight : Valentine's Treat"


Friends, share your valentine's favorite food or your valentine day planning with my event until 20th February, 2013