Gongura mamasam is one of my favourites and very close to my heart. It is an authentic and popular non-vegetarian dish in Andhra. I like this dish very much because of its tangy and spicy taste. Gong is called as sorrel leaves in English, khatti bhaji or ambadi ki bhaji in Hindi, pulicha keerai in Tamil. There are 2 types of sorrel leaves – one is red sorrel leaves and the other is green sorrel leaves. There is not much difference between them. The red one has its stem red and will be more sour than the green one. There is no substitute for this, but you can use chukka keerai in Telugu/Tamil. It is also sour but tastes different. Whenever we prepare pulav, my mother used to prepare this dish with mostly chicken or mutton in it, as a side dish. We call it khatti bhaji ka saalan. In London it is very difficult to get but very rarely we can get it in the south Indian shops in East Ham. I always miss the gongura leaves. Whenever I visit India in holidays, the first dish my mother prepares for me is gongura mamasam. Even my mother-in-law knows that I like these leaves very much. She buys these leaves and keeps it in the fridge. I really miss some food, which I do not get here. Even when I used to visit my grand parents in Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh), ambadi ki bhaji ka saalan (mutton with sorrel leaves) will be on the table. My grandfather is above 75, but still he loves to visit the market and loves to buy fresh fish or vegetables from the market in the morning. He does not like any food which is kept in the fridge. When I said to my grand father that I have frozen food particularly fish (though we get fresh fish also but have to go very far), he was laughing at me – what to do. He was thanking God that he was having fresh sea food. His favourite is sea food. He was in Vizag (Vishakapatnam), a beautiful and clean city, where we get plenty of fresh sea food. He used to bring big Tiger prawns which were still alive and fish also. I used to see my grandmother cutting the fish and cleaning the prawns. Now only I understand why I love to visit food markets and cook food. It has come from my grand parents which has become my passion. I think the topic has moved from gongura to fish. Its just I went back to my childhood while I was writing this. I am missing it very much after my marriage.
You can prepare this gongura curry even with chicken or prawns using the same spices. You can add more gongura (sorrel) leaves according to your tatse.
Ingredients
- For curry
- Oil – 3 tbsp
- Onion (medium size) – 1
- Mutton – 400 gms
- Ginger and garlic paste – 1 tbsp
- Chilli powder – 2 tsp
- Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
- Salt – as per taste
- Water – 1 cup For gongura
- Gongura leaves – 300 gms or big bowl-ful
- Onion (medium) – 1/2 or 1 small
- Tomato (big) – 1
- Green chillies (slit) – 4
- Ginger and garlic paste – 2 tsp
- Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
- Water (optional) – if required Tadka (seasoning)
- Oil – 1 tbsp
- Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
- Onion sliced or chopped (small) – 1
- Dry chillies – 2
- Garlic (crushed or sliced) – 3
- Curry leaves – 15
Method
- There 3 steps in this recipe.
- First chop all the ingredients that need chopping and keep it aside.
- Take a pressure cooker and add all the ingredients for mutton curry with oil as seen in the picture and cook it by closing the lid and until it gives 3 whistles or cook according to your cooker.
- When it is cooked switch it off and open the lid and see.
- If the gravy is watery and too thin, cook it by keeping the lid open until the consistency of the curry becomes thick. The mutton and other ingredients should be cooked well.
- When it is cooked keep it aside. Cooking gongura leaves
- Take the same cooker or any other vessel, add all the ingredients for cooking gongura and cook it for few minutes. We are cooking it like any curry by putting a few spices in it.
- No need to add water as the gongura leaves a lot of water. Onion and tomatoes are also added.
- Cook until the tomatoes, green chillies are cooked and you can see that the quantity of leaves is reduced.
- Now take any big spoon or the wooden masher, which I use for mashing dal, mash the cooked leaves with other ingredients well. It should not be like paste or chutneys. Just the tomatoes and green chillies should be well mixed with the gongura leaves. Mixing both curries
- Now pour the gongura mixture into the mutton curry and mix well, cook for 5minutes on high flame and 12 to 15 minutes on simmer.
- Can add water if the curry becomes too thick. You can cook according to your taste and consistency you want. Tadka
- Add oil to a preheated vessel, when it gets warm add mustard seeds, when it sputters add dry chillies onion curry leaves and garlic sliced or crushed and stir well.
- Cook till the onions are soft and roasted well, till it gives light brown colour.
- When it is cooked pour this thadka into the mutton and gongura mixture and mix well, check the seasoning(salt) well and cook it for 5min on simmer, by closing the lid.
- It will absorb all the flavour of thadka.
- Serve this dish with plain rice with few drops of ghee or with roti or any pulav dish.
1. Cooking mutton curry
2. Cooking gongura leaves
3. Mixing both mutton curry and gongura leaves.
4. Tadka
Cooking mutton curry
Notes
- The green chillies can be increased or decreased according to you spiciness.
- I some time add more quantity of gongura leaves according to my taste.
- If you want can add small 2 to 3 brinjals, while cooking the gongura leaves, if cooking in the cooker can cook till 3 whistles or till the brinjal is cooked. It will reduce the sourness and gives you different taste also.
- When the sorrel leaves are cooked it becomes very soft and reduces to a very smaller quantity.
- In my ginger garlic paste I added few whole spices and grounded to a paste. You can add it in the mutton curry like 3 green cardamoms, 3cloves, 1inc cinnamon stick.
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