Champaran Mutton

Submitted for Cook the Commonwealth! A research chemist by profession and love simplicity. My passion for cooking and art makes me explore new things and I love pursuing them. Being a chemist, it provokes me to do experiments in my kitchen too. Due to Covid situation, I opted travelling in my native Bengal only with my family. All of the road trips I did in 2021 always involved a pit stop at a roadside dhaba for some hot chai and a quick but tasty meal. Of all the recipes that I tried this year, I tried to recreate some of those quintessential dhaba-inspired menu in my own kitchen. Champaran meat, also known as ahuna, handi meat or batlohi, is a dish with its root from Champaran, a district of Bihar. Meat is marinated in a mix of mustard oil and ghee, garlic, onions, ginger with the paste of spices. The mouth of the handi is sealed with kneaded flour. This mutton recipe will enable you to create dhaba-inspired cuisine from your very own kitchen, using this recipe inspired by local roadside restaurants in Bihar. Kachri powder is used to tenderise mutton - if you can't find it, the mutton may need to slowcook for longer.

Great

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Heat the mustard oil till it just starts bubbling. Marinate the mutton with the hot mustard oil and all the remaining ingredients. Keep it aside for 20 minutes.

Step 2

Take a big earthen pot. Add the ghee, whole garlic cloves and the marinated mutton. Put the lid, and seal the edges with dough.

Step 3

I had to use my gas oven in my kitchen and so initially I kept at a high flame for 10 minutes. Place an iron tawa on gas burner and put the earthen pan over it. This will prevent the earthen pot from cracking.

Step 4

Cook on low flame for 3 hour. Once or twice shake the entire pot in between to mix the contents of the pot. Remove the lid and check, you can add 100ml water and cook covered for another 30 minutes if the mutton has not softened. Now remove from fire and serve with steaming hot rice or roti.