Laal Maas
I came across this recipe from a cooking show hosted by david rocco. I fell in love with it because of its simplicity because it uses few simple spices and spice powders. The bright red colour with a thin layer of ghee floating on top makes it so appetizing. This curry is made with mutton or lamb. It goes well with pretty much anything, specially chapati, rice, curd rice, coconut rice, parotta or anything your heart desire.
About Laal Maas
Laal maas is a popular spicy mutton dish from Rajasthan. It is also known as Ratto Maans. ‘Laal’ means Red and ‘Maas’ means Mutton. The dish is known for its iconic red colour. Tender pieces of lamb cooked in a yogurt sauce with kashmiri chilli powder, coriander, ginger & garlic. Traditionally, laal maas was made with wild game meat (jungli maas), such as boar or deer. It was a favourite among the royalties. This traditional Rajasthani laal maas is made with lots of dry red chillies and can be served with phulka or roti.
Laal Maas Ingredients
Mutton | Lamb - The recipe calls for tender pieces of lamb or mutton with bone-in. But you can opt for boneless meat as per your convenience. Yogurt | Dahi - The sauce for laal maas is made with yogurt. Use thick creamy curd for texture. Spice Powders - kashmiri chilli powder adds colour to the gravy. Coriander powder and turmeric is purely for flavour. Onions - The authentic recipe doesn’t uses onions. But I like to add sliced onions for flavour and sweetness. Whole Spices - Black cardamom adds unique pungent almost menthol like flavour to the dish. Ginger & Garlic - freshly crushed ginger and garlic adds aroma to the dish which enhances the flavour profile. Ghee - ghee or clarified butter adds rich taste to the dish.
Laal Maas Recipe in Steps
Mixing Sauce
Take curd, ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder in a bowl, mix well and set aside.
Searing Meat
Heat ghee in a pressure cooker, add in cinnamon and black cardamom. Add in onions, salt and cook till golden brown. Add in mutton and toss well in the onions till it seared.Pour in curd mix and toss well till the colour darkens.
Cooking Laal Maas
Add in some water and mix well. Cover and pressure cook for 5 whistle, then simmer the flame and cook for 15 mins. Turn off the heat and let the steam escape all by itself. Serve hot.
Expert Tips
Thick yogurt is preferred to make the curry. You can opt for dahi as well. Use tender pieces of meat for even and faster cooking. Kashmiri chilli powder is used in the gravy for colour. If you are using regular chilli powder, use less. You can make the curry with chicken as well.
How to Smoke Laal Maas
Once the laal maas is done cooking. Remove it to a serving bowl which has a lid fitting lid. Heat a piece of charcoal till red. Meanwhile make a cup shape using aluminium foil. You can use a small bowl. Keep the foil cup on the top of the gravy, and place the hot charcoal piece inside the cup. Top with few pieces of cloves over the charcoal. Drizzle a tsp of ghee over the charcoal. Immediately cover the pan with a tight fitting lid and let it smoke for 2 to 3 minutes. Now remove the cup carefully and mix well. Serve hot.
How to Make Rajasthani Laal Maas (Stepwise Pictures)
Mixing Sauce
1)First let’s mix the sauce for the curry. Take thick curd in a bowl. Make sure the yogurt is thick and not too sour. A little sour taste is fine. Yogurt makes the base of the curry. 2)Add in kashmiri chilli powder and turmeric powder. Kashmiri mirch adds the iconic red colour to the gravy. 3)Add in coriander powder which helps with the thickening of the sauce. 4)Add in crushed ginger and garlic. You can grate peeled ginger and garlic straight into the yogurt. Optionally you can use ginger garlic paste. 5)Mix this really well till the yogurt incorporates into the spice powders and creates a smooth sauce.
Tempering Spices
6)I used my pressure cooker to cook the gravy. But you can cook this in a regular heavy bottom pot. Pressure cooker is faster way to cooking. heat ghee in pressure cooker. 7)Add in black cardamom and cinnamon stick. let it sizzle in the ghee for few minutes. 8)Add in sliced onions. 9)Sprinkle salt over the onions so it starts cooking faster. 10)take your time to cook onions. It has to turn soft and caramelized. 11)This is the colour you have take the onions for sweetness and flavour.
Searing Mutton
12)Add in tender pieces of mutton into the fried onions. 13)Sprinkle salt to taste. Sear the mutton pieces for 5 to 10 minutes till the lamb gets nice colour. 14)Reduce the flame and add in yogurt mixture. 15)Stir the yogurt into the seared meat. Cook on low heat till mutton is well coated in the yogurt sauce. 16)Cook for at least 10 minutes to create flavour.
Cooking Mutton
17)Pour in enough water to cover the meat. Give it a good stir. Cover and pressure cook for 5 to 6 whistle. If you are cooking this in a regular pot, it might take around 2 hours. You might need to add more hot water if the gravy gets too dry. 18)Laal maas ready to serve.
More Mutton | Lamb Recipes
📖 Recipe Card
If you have any questions not covered in this post and if you need help, leave me a comment or mail me @[email protected] and I’ll help as soon as I can. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook,Pinterest ,Youtube and Twitter for more Yummy Tummy inspiration. IF YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR ANYTHING FROM YUMMY TUMMY, MAKE SURE TO POST IT AND TAG ME SO I CAN SEE ALL OF YOUR CREATIONS!! #YUMMYTUMMYAARTHI AND @YUMMYTUMMYAARTHI ON INSTAGRAM!
More Rajasthani Dishes
