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Final exam mutton fry and other challenges
Summary
A recipe for South Indian-style goat fry in exchange for 70 percent in geography? Good food can be a calming experience during exams
Today, the daughter came back ravenous from her geography exam and said she craved beef chilli fry. I didn’t have beef. “So, make mutton chilli fry like beef," she demanded and flounced off. It’s exam time. I had promised to make her whatever she wanted for the duration, so I had little choice.
Final exams have always been a trying time—for me at least.
When I was a high school student, my attention span was short, my exam planning was non-existent, and I believed I would somehow pass. I blundered along. Mostly I passed, not with any distinction, often barely, and, sometimes, I failed. In the event, I cannot thank the great examiner in the sky enough that those days are gone, never to return.
The dread of finals is back now in some fashion because the teen’s ninth-standard endgame is nigh. She studies better than I ever did, and while she’s no bookworm, she wants to do reasonably well. Her mother and I want that too, but only by using positive reinforcement, which, in this family means food. Good food has a calming influence on both parents and child.
The teen knows this well and her demands for “exciting" food have risen exponentially. She knows, you see, that we will likely say yes—food-wise—to things to which we may normally say no. Usually, she is hungry every two hours. During exams it appears to be every hour. While we scramble to provide her with fruits, fried stuff, sweet stuff and juices, I know that the main course sets the tone.
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A good lunch or dinner is also the best insurance against endless junk. So, I made—among other things—fish curry, prawn pasta, roast chicken, Greek-style burger, roast pork. I had little choice. She did not forget my promise to make her whatever she sought.
When that geography exam was done, I asked injudiciously, “Will you get 70%?" She glared at me and then made that demand for chilli beef or mutton.
This was not an easy demand because she does not care much for chilli. Mutton chilli fry without chilli? Through experimentation, I’ve learnt how to produce the flavour of chillies without using too many of them.As you see from the recipe below, it’s possible to use less. I must also remember that clove and cardamom are her sworn enemies for some unfathomable reason, so I take care to banish them from my kitchen.
Making food for the little girl is all very well, but I also have the big girl, the picky vegetarian wife. She may say food isn’t important to her, but it is. I am not allowed to make north Indian vegetarian for her—dal, paneer and that sort of thing, her comfort food—but she is happy to try my versions of lunch and dinner from the Mediterranean and the Maghreb.
The complement to the mutton fry was my version of a smashed zucchini salad that I saw on Instagram. I rather enjoyed smashing the zucchini and watching the seeds fly, and I enjoyed watching the wife’s eyes widen in approval. The mutton fry, too, I am glad to report, was a hit. She better deliver that 70%.
Final Exam Mutton Fry
Serves 4
Ingredients
Half kg goat mutton, small pieces
1 dried chilli
6 peppercorns
Half-inch piece cinnamon
Leaf of a star anise
2 cloves
20 curry leaves
One-and-a-half onion chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
Half tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder
4 tsp vegetable oil
Salt to taste
Method
In a pressure cooker, heat oil gently. Drop in the dried red chilli, peppercorns, cinnamon, star anise, cloves and curry leaves, until they start to pop and splutter. Add onion and saute until lightly brown. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute for a minute. Add Kashmiri chilli powder, tomatoes and saute, until it begins to stick. Add the mutton, salt and mix all spices well. Add red chilli and coriander powders and mix thoroughly. Add half a cup of water and pressure cook on medium to high for three whistles. Switch off the gas and let the pressure dissipate. Open and cook until the water dries up, stirring frequently. Adjust salt if needed.
Smashed zucchini, chickpeas and avocado salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 large zucchini
1 avocado, small pieces
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 small onion, chopped
Juice of half a lemon
One-and-a-half tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
Half tsp chipotle powder
2 tbsp chopped parsley
Half a cup chopped basil
4 tsp olive oil
Salt to taste
Method
Use a rolling pin to coarsely smash the zucchini into medium-sized pieces or smaller (watch for flying seeds!). Sprinkle with salt. Place in a colander and press down with a napkin to absorb the water over 20 minutes. After the water is removed, marinate with 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder, the chipotle power and set aside for 10 minutes. Pour 3 tsp olive oil and roast the smashed zucchini in the oven for 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius, stepping up to 200 degrees for the last 10 minutes. You can also grill on a pan until it begins to char.
Roast chickpeas in a pan or in the oven for 10 minutes with half tsp Kashmiri chilli powder and 1 tsp olive oil.
Now, assemble. Toss avocado, zucchini and chickpeas, red onion, lemon juice, parsley and basil. Adjust salt and lemon juice if required.
You can serve the salad warm or refrigerated.
(This is a version of a recipe from @starinfinitefood (Caitlin Latessa-Greene) from Massachusetts, US.)
Our Daily Bread is a column on easy, inventive cooking. Samar Halarnkar is the author of The Married Man’s Guide To Creative Cooking—And Other Dubious Adventures. He posts @samar11 on Twitter.
