Ingredients:

• 1 kg – fatty Mutton cuts (preferably from breast, neck, tail – approx. 20 pieces)
• 2 tsp – aniseed, whole
• 15 g – green Ginger or 7 g dry Ginger
• 2 tsp – salt
• A pinch of Asafoetida
• 1/2 cup – Mustard oil
• 1 tsp – Cumin seeds
• 5 – Cloves
• A pinch of Asafoetida
• 1/2 kg – Curd
• 1 cup – Milk
• 1 tsp – Sugar
• 1 tsp – dry Ginger powder
• 2 tsp – aniseed powder
• 1 tsp – Garam Masala
• 1/2 tsp – Caraway seeds
• 10 – green Cardamoms
• 1 tsp – black pepper Corns
• 1 tsp – black Cardamom seeds
• 1 tbsp – pure ‘ghee’ (optional)

Method:

1. Shred the green ginger finely after scraping.
2. If dry ginger is used, pound it into small pieces.
3. In a bowl, mix and churn together the curd, milk, sugar, ginger and aniseed powders. Keep it aside.
4. Pound the black pepper corns and black cardamom seeds into a coarse powder, and keep them ready for use.
5. Take a tinned copper or brass or a stainless steel ‘patila’ (deep vessel) of about 3 litres capacity.
6. Put in it the meat and add a litre of water, the whole aniseeds, shredded green ginger or broken dry ginger, salt and asafoetida powder.
7. Place the ‘patila’ on the stove and let it boil on a medium flame for 1/2 an hour or so, till the meat becomes somewhat tender.
8. Remove the ‘patila’ from the fire and let it cool a bit.
9. Strain through a colander or a cloth, collecting the soup in a separate bowl.
10. Sort out the meat pieces, discarding the boiled aniseeds, ginger and bone pieces etc.
11. Add the soup to the churned curd, milk, ginger and aniseed mixture and again mix it well with a ladle.
12. After cleaning the ‘patila’ used for boiling the meat, pour the mustard oil in it and heat it till the froth disappears and the oil begins to smoke a little.
13. Remove the ‘patila’ from the heat for a few minutes, to let the temperature of the oil come down a bit.
14. Add cloves, cumin seeds and a pinch of asafoetida and stir with a steel or wooden ladle, till the cloves and cumin seeds fry a bit, but do not get burnt.
15. Now, add the mixture of curd and soup etc.
16. Resume heating the ‘patila’, while continuing to stir the contents, so that the curd does not crack and separate. Bring to a boil.
17. When the curd, soup etc. blend nicely, add the boiled meat pieces.
18. Let it boil for a little while stirring the contents with a ladle now and then.
19. Now, let the meat etc. simmer on low heat, till the gravy thickens, the oil begins to show and the meat gets soft.
20. Remove from heat if the ‘yakhni’ has to be served later.
21. In that case, before serving, heat the ‘patila’ again on low flame and add the garam masala, pounded black cardamom seeds and black pepper corns.
22. Add the caraway seeds and the green cardamoms too after crushing these a little.
23. Pure ghee, if desired, may also be added.
24. After stirring gently and boiling for a minute, serve hot.
25. If the dish is to be served immediately after the gravy thickens, then these condiments are added that very time.

Recipe courtesy of Priscilla Farro