Jhatpat Mutton – Goulash Style Indian Mutton Curry

This North Indian Mutton Curry recipe is for a lamb curry that involves making a goulash style quick or jhatpat mutton in a pressure cooker with Indian ingredients.

As the story goes. It is always better if there is a story behind the food. It makes things interesting. Even more interesting is how humans can suddenly display behaviour of the utmost astonishment at times unexpected.

A conversation with Jayita Sen Sengupta about British Lord Macaulay stemmed out. The reference was from a post on my Facebook page which turned out to be untrue for the most part it seems.

A bit of History: Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay was Secretary to the Board of Control under Lord Grey from 1832 until 1833.

After the passing of the Government of India Act 1833, he was appointed as the first Law Member of the Governor-General’s Council. He went to India in 1834 and served on the Supreme Council of India between 1834 and 1838.

Later on, he introduced English medium education in India through his famous Minute on Indian Education of February 1835.

This called for an educational system to create a class of anglicised Indians who would serve as cultural intermediaries between the British and the Indians.

This actually brought to an end a lively debate on the appropriate language for education and administration. Macaulay thereby succeeded in implementing ideas previously put forward by Lord William Bentinck.

William Bentinck was the governor-general from 1829, who, inspired by utilitarian ideas and calling for “useful learning,”.

He favoured the replacement of Persian with English as the official language, the use of English as the medium of instruction, and the training of English-speaking Indians as teachers.

It seems while he did considerable damage to the indigenous languages, he did not make the speech in the image alongside.

While having this conversation, Jayita Sen Sengupta, an accomplished foodie, amazing cook and a good soul that she is, slipped a variant (I did some custom work) of Goulash style Indian Mutton Curry recipe to me.

1. To make a delicious mutton curry, the choice of meat is very important. Choose fresh and tender cuts as this helps to get soft & succulent mutton after cooking.
2. Bone-in lamb or mutton yields a more delicious gravy than boneless when it is slow cooked. The flavous from the bones transfer to the gravy making it thicker and tastier.
3. Refrain from adding acidic ingredients like lemon or tomatoes to the pan before sautéing the mutton. Acidic ingredients tend to make the meat tough when added before sautéing it. You may add the tomatoes after sautéing the mutton.
4. Marinating the mutton is important, however, since this is a pressure cooker recipe so you can avoid the mutton marination totally.

Serve this goulash style mutton curry along with Tawa Paratha or Naan, Jeera Rice. Couple these with a Pomegranate Raita for a delicious and elaborate weekend meal.