HAANDI MEIN GOSHT

Hello friends...it's been sometime...life has been busy with family obligations...daughter coming back home after 2 years of college.....it is a big excuse to celebrate...not that we, as food lovers need one....so, this occassion is being celebrated by cooking a favourite of hers, also to say bye bye to the winters ( you'd really find it difficult to cook this dish in summers)......the terracotta 'haandi' is the hero of the recipe, putting the well cut kid meat in the heroine's position.......you would need some ground space , since the 'haandi' needs to be put in a pit in mud....if you do not have such a space, feel free to put the 'haandi' or an equivalent vessel in the oven....ask your butcher to give you curry cut of a small goat , best would be kid meat. The 'haandi' in the pit makes for interesting conversation piece and also the favourite spot to sit around and chat. The heady earthy aroma it imparts to the dish has absolutely no substitute. The gentle warmth the coal exudes is more than welcome in the cold night.
       
  You would need
*a 'haandi', an earthen pot of capacity 5-6 kgs. Ask your potter to give you one in which you can cook, a heat resistant one.
*3 kgs of 'kanda' , cowdung cakes
*2 kgs of coal


Recipe for "haandi mein gosht "

Serves 6
Prep Time :       1 hrs
Cooking time :  2 hrs

Ingredients

mutton                                      1 kg
onions                                      1/2 kg (ground to a fine paste, without water)
garlic paste                              2tbsp
ginger paste                             2 tbsp
khus khus (poppy seeds)         2tbsp
milk                                         3/4 cup
cinnamon                                 1" piece
green cardamom                      6
black cardamom                      1
mace                                       1/2" piece
nutmeg                                    1/2
clove                                       6
black peppercorns                   10
bay leaves                               2
ghee (clarified butter)              3 tbsp
mustard oil                             3 tbsp
yoghurt                                  1 cup
rose water                              1/2 tsp
salt                                         to taste
dough to seal                          1 cup

Method

• wash the 'haandi' and upturn to dry it out completely
• prepare a pit in the ground of 2ft depth and 2 ft width
• line with one layer of lit 'kandas' (cowdung cakes)
• in separate place light the coal
• soak the khuskhus, green cardamom, mace and crushed nutmeg in 1 cup milk
• wash mutton and leave to dry
• heat mustard oil till smoking point
• add bay leaf, cinnamon,cloves, crushed black cardamom, black peppercorns
• add onion paste, fry till dry
• add ginger and garlic paste, fry for 2 mins
• take off fire
• slather the insides of the haandi with ghee
• grind the soaked khuskhus and spices into a fine paste
• mix the mutton into the fried onion paste 
• add the yoghurt and the khuskhus/spice paste
• add salt to taste
• put in the haandi
• sprinkle rose water
• put lid and seal tight with dough, ensure that no steam escapes
• lower the 'haandi' into the pit over the smouldering 'kandas'(cowdung cakes)
• put the coal embers on the sides of the 'haandi'
• this should come up till the middle of the 'haandi'
• cover the coal embers with a layer of dry 'kandas'...do not light them.
• cover this layer of cowdung cakes with a cm of dry earth
• make sure the mouth of the pot is not covered

Sit around the pot and enjoy the warmth. Carefully unearth the pot after 2 hrs.  Serve the delectable dish straight from the pot. An ideal accompanyment is rumali roti (a superfine Indian bread ) and some salad on the side

variation : if you do not have space then you could easily cook this in an oven