I never grew up eating mutton and cabbage, but I fell in love with it as a new bride when I married into a Hindi family.

This recipe is probably not how you make cabbage and mutton because I didn’t ask for the recipe. I made it and googled recipes but over the years I’ve grown fond of my flavors.

Top tip: Cover your cabbage with boiling water and a tsp of salt before adding it to your curry. This will remove the gas.

Ingredient

1/2 onion, chopped fine

1 kg mutton (cubed)

2 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

stem of curry leaves

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp garlic

1 tsp jeera masala

1 tsp garam masala

2 tsp chili spice (I use mother-in-law)

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 star aniseed

1/2 tsp whole jeera

2 tsp salt

oil

2 tomato’s (grated)

1/2 cabbage sliced (I cut a whole cabbage in half, then in quarters. I turn each quarter on it’s side, the tip facing away from my non-slicing hand. And I chop sideways, from the tip to the stem. The width is roughly 1cm thick. I also chop, rinse and freeze the other half.)

Method

1. Wash the meat well, coat in salt and set aside for 5 minutes.

2. In a large pot, heat oil on medium heat and add, jeera seeds, star aniseed, cloves, curry leaves, cinnamon stick.

3. Fry onions well and add ginger and garlic. Give it a quick stir before adding jeera masala, garam masala, turmeric and chili spice.

4. Rinse salt of the meat while the spices fry in the pot. Add it to the pot and coat it well with the onion and spice mixture.

5. Add 1/2 cup water, lower the temperature and close the pot. Let the meat cook for 15 minutes until it starts to soften and lock in the spices.

6. Add tomato and cook for another 5-10 minutes on low heat.

7. Add cabbage and continue to cook on very low heat for another 30 minutes. Add a little water if the cabbage/meat starts to stick to the pot.

8. Garnish with dhania (coriander) and serve with fluffy rice or roti.