Spicy Mutton Soup

This dish is not spicy as in chillie hot but spicy in the sense that it uses spices like coriander, cumin, fennel etc. A deeply satisfying and quite rich soup, it is the typical 'Sup Tulang' (bone soup) in the Malay home. Beef ribs or oxtail are usually used for a soup of this kind but since I stumbled upon some shoulder of mutton at the supermarket today, mutton soup it is.

It's lovely eaten with a steaming mound of plain white rice of with some yellow noodles plunged into a steaming and soupy bowl of it. Either way its delicious.

1.5 kg of mutton shoulder, oxtail or ribs
2 potatoes , skinned ans cut into chunks
some baby carrots

1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger

2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp whole cumin
1 tsp whole fennel
1 tsp white pepper

1 large piece of cinnamon stick
3-4 cloves
1 star anise

3 tbsp cooking oil

Serves 6

Process or pound in a pestle and mortar half the onion, garlic and ginger. Slice the other onion half. Keep aside.

Dry fry the whole cumin and fennel until it releases its aroma. Then pound in a pestle and mortar until a powder and mix wth the powdered coriander and white pepper. Add water to make a paste.

Chop the shoulder of mutton into smaller pieces if necessary and remove excess fat.

Saute the sliced half large onion until a golden brown. Add the pounded onion, garlic and ginger and saute furhter until aromatic and the onion mixture is soft and slightly brown at the edges.
Add the spice paste and stir and continue sauteeing until aromatic. If you find it a little dry add some water and saute until it turns a darker and it seperates from the oil a little.

Add just boiled water and then the mutton bones/shoulder and add some more water until the bones/meat is covered. Add salt and let the soup come to a rolling boil and then reduce the heat and let it boil gently until the meat is tender.

Add cut potatoes and the baby carrots and simmer until the vegetables are tender and add salt if necessary.

Chop some scallions and sprinkle them onto the soup just before serving followed by some sliced and golden fried onions if you have them (I did not).

TIP : the only reason I used powdered coriander is because I did not have any coriander seeds in my cupboard. I prefer to dry fry them myself and then pound to a powder rather than use the powdered ones as I feel it is fresher and releases more aroma.

Three Sauced Meat Balls

I usually make this with beef but today I used minced mutton and It was GOOD! VERY GOOD. I'm a little embarrassed by this recipe because it simply uses bottled sauces but WHO CARES. It was good. So although I'm not being paid for the advert those are the sauces that I used plus one more - Maggi Tomato Sauce.

Mutton and lamb gives a much smoother and finer texture in the meatballs than beef. And for extra moistness I used milk in the meat ball mixture plus a few spices which married very well with the sauces.

This recipe should serve six hungry people or four hungry ghosts.

600 gm minced mutton/beef/lamb
2 cups fresh breadcrumbs (5 slices of bread)
1 Tbspn coriander powder/serbuk ketumbar
1 Tbspn fennel powder/serbuk jintan manis
1 Tbspn cumin powder/serbuk jintan putih
1 1/2 tsp salt
5 - 6 Tbspn fresh milk
Dash of cayenne pepper or a dash of black pepper
Dried parsley flakes

1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic squashed

2 Tbsp Lingham chilly sauce
4 Tbspn Maggi Tomato sauce
4 Tbspn Heinz BBQ sauce ('regular' or 'chicken and ribs')
1 1/2 cups of water

1 teaspn cornflour
1 Tbspn water

10 pieces of curry leaves (optional) but how can you resist the aroma of it.

Vegetable cooking oil

Make meatballs :

Mix minced mutton, breadcrumbs, powdered spices, black pepper or cayenne pepper, milk, salt and dried parsley flakes. Mix well with hands. Shape into balls the size of a small lime or, I suppose, that of a walnut (although I've never actually seen one whole).

Shallow fry the meatballs in a some oil until they turn a nice crusty brown on the outside but it doesn't matter if it is half cooked inside. Drain and keep aside.

Remove some of the oil and leave 2 tablespoons in the pan. Saute the diced onions and garlic until soft and slightly brown at the edges. Pour in the three sauces. Add the water. Stir.

Put in the meatballs.Stir to coat. Season to taste although you don't really need to at all. Add the cornflour/water mixture and stir to mix. Let it bubble and simmer until the meatballs are completely cooked and the sauce has thickened.

Serve hot and yummy with plain rice like I just did.

Claypot Mutton Rendang

Hari Raya (Eid) is around the corner and I'm thinking of making a claypot or casserole mutton rendang. I tried it recently and it turned out to be very, very good. Something different from the usual beef rendang, was a healthier option and it was easy on the washing up as well. I was more relaxed because I knew in my mind that my stove wouldn't get spat on by the bubbling and simmering concoction which meant that I wouldn't be using up much of my depleting energy reserves cleaning it up afterwards. That and in addition to the fact that a one pot casserole that is popped into the oven can be conveniently forgotten for at least an hour if not more. In other words less stress, less work and more blogging time.

The recipe would serve four rather starving people or six civilized eaters. My children stared quite malignantly at the empty dish trying hard to to will more into existence. That's enough proof that I should either keep this recipe to myself or share it. But share it I must. It's the spirit of the season. TIP* Use a pretty casserole or claypot with a 2 litre capacity.

900 gm of cubed boneless mutton

2 large red onions
4 cloves garlic
1 inch of fresh galangal/lengkuas, sliced
1 inch fresh ginger, sliced
1/2 inch fresh tumeric, sliced
1 - 2 tbsp chilli paste or more if you prefer ( made from blended/processed soaked dried chillies or bottled chilli paste)
1 tbsp tomato puree (optional)
2 stalks lemon grass/serai, sliced
1 tbsp powdered cumin/jintan putih

The above ingredients (mutton not included) are to be blitzed in a food processor or in a blender. I personally prefer using a food processor as I needn't add water to the mixture which results in a thicker and more concentrated paste and less simmering/cooking time in order to achieve a thick and rich rendang sauce (which is everyone's goal in the cooking of rendang).

2 large onions, sliced and fried in some oil (approx. 2 tbsp) till caramalized or a golden brown, drained and kept aside till needed.

1/2 cup freshly grated or dessicated coconut, fried dry in a pan till golden brown and blitzed in a grinder or food processor. Or you could just buy some ready made (called kerisik) at the wet market. Keep aside.

1 piece tumeric leaf/daun kunyit, shredded or left whole
5 - 6 pieces kaffir lime leaf/daun limau purut, left whole

440 ml thick coconut milk ( I used 'canned' not fresh) because I find it thicker and more concentrated

1/2 cup (more or less) vegetable oil

Put cubed mutton in a claypot or casserole. Put shredded or whole tumeric leaves and lime leaves, the golden brown fried sliced onions and the 'kerisik' in as well.

Meanwhile saute the ground ingredients till fragrant and or the paste turns a darker, richer colour and the oil rises to the top. When done add this cooked paste (oil and all) to the mutton in claypot or casserole. Pour in the thick coconut milk. Add salt. Give the mixture a good careful mix so that the meat is well coated with all the spices and coconut milk. Cover.

Pop it into the oven at 200 F for about 1 hour or a little more than that and then lower the heat to 180 F and cook uncovered or half covered till the sauce thickens and turns a rich dark brown. I did not check the time when I did this so you will have to look in after half and hour or so and let it continue to cook if not done yet. I believe I left it in for about another hour. Add more salt if necessary.

I had it in the oven for a about 21/2 hours in all. Plenty of time to watch AFC, read, write, have a stomach ache or even a nap (WITH THE TIMER ON!).

Serve it straight from the oven to the table, after giving it a good wipe around the edges of course.






Why this dish tasted good:

The fried caramelized onions added a savoury sweetness.

A long, slow cooking time allowed the meat to absorb all the flavours.

The ground paste was sauteed first which brought out the savoury sweetness of the ingredients.

The addition of kerisik added the richness of the coconut flavour to it and gave it its dark, deep colour. (Sometimes I omit the kerisik and it does not taste as good)

Why casserole cooking was more convenient then the traditional stove top cooking:

I avoided the problem of scraping the bottom of the pot every now and then to ensure that the meat at the bottom doesn't stick or get burnt.

The meat cooks evenly as the heat from the oven surrounds the whole casserole; therefore it eliminated the need to stir the mixture.

Here are some of my casseroles, minus the one that I had dropped to smithereens, the one I cracked and the one that's missing a cover.





Next post : The History of Rendang - recipe for the true traditional Minangkabau rendang