Kosha Mangsho... Mutton Kosha!! 

Kosha Mangsho or Mutton Kosha is a spicy bengali mutton curry. The word "kosha" means slow cooking of the gravy along with mutton pieces on low flame over a long period of time which gives this distinctive colour and obviously the melt in mouth meat. 

I don't really eat mutton for reasons which are unknown to me but my husband loves mutton and I love him ;) hence one fine day I decided to cook "kosha Mangsho". When it came to the recipe I asked my mom, now again my mother does not eats mutton now but once she used to only eat mutton and loved mutton, so here is my mom's version of "Kosha Mangsho" which my husband says is the best he had so far (better than any restaurant!!)

This particular recipe has no special or complicated ingredients or procedure, the only thing required is slow cooking and lots of patience. So lets get started.

Ingredients:

1 kg Mutton

For Marinade

1 onion (large size)

5 cloves garlic

5 tbsn curd

1 tsp garam masala (any homemade or readymade)

1/2 tsp turmeric

2 tsp salt 

2 tbspn raw papaya crushed (optional)

For the Gravy 

2 tspn Ghee

2 dry red chilly

1 cinnamon stick

1 black cardamom

10 piece cloves

10 piece green cardamom

3 bay leaf

4 onions (large, thin sliced)

2 tbspn ginger paste

10-12 garlic cloves

3 green chillies

1 tspn corriander powder

1 tspn cumin powder

1 tspn red chilly powder

1 tspn salt

2 tspn sugar (dont worry it wont make the curry sweet)

5 tbspn curd

Procedure:

Blend all the ingredients mentioned for the marinade and make a fine paste and coat the mutton pieces well with the marinade. Raw papaya though optional still will recommend as it makes the meat more tender. Leave the mutton with the marinade for at least 4 hours and best overnight.

Now begins the cooking process which is as simple as it can be.

Heat oil in the kadhai , add the ghee also and when both oil and ghee have heated properly, add the whole spices. 

Once the spices crackle add the onions and sugar ( it helps in caramelizing and give a nice colour). 

I have used sliced onions. in most the Bengali cooking and what I have seen my mom, aunts and grand ma's that they always slice the onions instead of chopping or grinding. my mom says this gives a nice texture to the gravy. And besides I avoid using onion paste because it takes too much oil to cook them and the gravy lacks texture and looks too dull.

Cook the onions for 15 minutes on very low flame .

While the onion is cooking, making paste of garlic and green chillies and also make paste of cumin, coriander and red chilly powder.

After 15 minutes of cooking the onions add the ginger paste and the garlic green chilly paste.

Cook them well till oil separates and raw smell goes away.

Now add the spice mix paste and again cook till oil separates.

Now add the marinated mutton pieces, cook on medium to high flame till the water evaporates. also add the remaining salt and the beaten curd.

• Patience is the key here, keep stirring and scraping the masala from the sides in regular intervals. In case you feel the gravy has dried up and is sticking to the bottom, sprinkle a bit of water , scrap and stir again. This should take you 90 minutes (Yes it will take that much) by the time the mutton is cooked, has a nice rich gravy with a beautiful dark brown colour. You should be able to tear the mutton with two fingers thats when you know the mutton is done.

This process might look simple but be careful not to burn the masala else the gravy might turn bitter. So keep sprinkling water on regular intervals and keep stirring. And all this while keep the lid on.

Once the mutton is cooked you can add a little warm water to adjust the consistency, however this is a thick gravy so avoid adding too much water. 

And this is what you will be left with. A delicious finger licking "kosha Mangsho". 

The oil that you see running around the gravy is actually the fat of the mutton and not the oil that we used in cooking.

My husband is a pure non vegetarian and he is a big foodie and if you were to trust him.... this mutton kosha is a must try.!!!

Serve it with rice, pulao, naan, porota.!!