Celebrating women’s day with Kolhapuri Mutton.

[I drafted this on woman’s day afternoon but as we had friends kept pouring in from morning to evening, didn’t get any time to post. So here I am wishing you all a very Happy Woman’s day!!! Hope if for nothing else your husband has pampered you at least because it fell on a Sunday :-)]

Its not that I am very fond of these special days. I always found it more market driven than actually doing something to the cause. But this year I really feel like going out and wish every Woman a very happy Woman’s day. I know some of you might point that being at my position having all the education I wished for or choosing the occupation I dreamed of empowers me to celebrate this day and write a cheerful piece of how lovely it feels to be a women. You might say there are plenty of women in India and all over the world who everyday curse God for making them women, there are women who struggle everyday just to live a decent life...I know it all, but this year am trying to find if there actually is any difference between us, the so called educated, empowered women and those living a deprived life in rural or urban India.

I know a person who after 8 years of courtship got married and emotionally gets tortured by her in laws almost everyday. Her husband is holding an important managerial position with an MNC but at home is a silent viewer. The girl herself is well educated and belongs to a well to do family. But she still cannot walk out of the marriage

My 18 years old maid left education 4 years back, because they are 4 sisters and her father cannot afford her education. She works at my place and spends all her earnings on quite expensive cosmetics and dresses. When I offered her to buy books so that she could read in her spare times she out rightly ignored that saying she would prefer to get married as soon as possible.

One of my female Karigar has been thrown out from her house just because her first-born was a girl.

Think of the seven attacks against educated women in the city of Bangalore and Mangalore in the name of morality, culture and “public decency– during the attacks, the girls were insulted for wearing jeans, sleeveless shirts and speaking English.

And there is this gang of girls in the commercial ads, who after using whitening cream feels confident…
Or the girls in the movie ‘Monalisa smiles’ who were educated for the ‘roles they were born to fill’…

Who you think is the face of modern Woman???

I don’t know the answer. But what I see around me or read in paper makes me believe that women in general don’t have the freedom of choice. Though all over the world the development strategists are targeting women to achieve a healthy, educated society and sustainable development but still we are marginalized and as Shobha De has rightly pointed out ‘unlike other minorities there is nobody to represent this target group’.

But after all these discussions just give this minority group a bit of love and show them you care… they will forget and forgive everything. I remember Mariam from ‘A thousand splendid suns’ who never had her right as daughter. Was married to a man double her age. Was beaten everyday in her life for not bearing his child and finally was killed by the Taliban just because she wanted to fight back her husband who had intended to kill them…but still before her death she was in peace, ‘as she has loved more deeply than she had imagined, and most surprising to her, that love has been returned.’

That is the power of a woman. We find solace in giving…and are happy to get a fraction of that in return.

As for me, I thank God everyday for making me who I am…and on woman’s day inspite of being an eggitarian myself, I cooked Kolhapuri mutton to feed a group of bachelor friends of Hubby and was satisfied when they licked their finger after the meal.

Kolhapuri Mutton

Ingredients:
1 kg mutton: cut in medium sized pieces. Wash and drain all the water.
8 small potatoes. Peeled and washed.
For the dry spices:
1-teaspoon coriander seeds
1-teaspoon cumin seeds
1-teaspoon poppy seeds
1-teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
1-teaspoon toor daal
4 whole red chilies
8 cloves
2 cardamoms
1 stick cinnamon
A pinch of ground mace
1 small cup of grated coconut

For the wet spices:
3 big onions, chopped
1and ½ teaspoon ginger paste
2-teaspoon garlic paste
2 medium tomatoes, chopped

For tempering:
1 star anise
4 cloves
1 stick cinnamon

1-teaspoon turmeric powder
1-teaspoon chili powder
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking

Method:
Heat oil and fry the chopped onions till lightly brown in colour. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry till the water dries. Cool and grind it to a paste.
Marinade the chicken with this paste, chili powder and salt and keep covered for 2 hours.

Make the dry masala. Heat a teaspoon of oil and fry all the dry ingredients till the aroma rises. Add the coconut at the end and fry till light brown. Grind it to a smooth powder and keep covered.

Prick the potatoes and fry them with salt and turmeric and keep aside.

Heat oil and put the tempering spices and sauté until they turn color and release aroma. Add the ginger garlic paste and cook till brown.

Add the marinated mutton, salt and turmeric powder. Mix everything well and let it cook. This stage in Bengali is known as ‘Kashano’ that means stirring, covering and again cooking till the aroma of the spices arise from the pan and the oil separates at the side. This is known to be the most important part of cooking mutton.

When oil separates at the side add the dry spice powder and give it a good stir.

Take the whole thing in a pressure cooker; add the potatoes and 2 cups of warm water. Mix well and check the seasoning.

Cook till the mutton is tender. I had to cook it for 4 whistles.

After opening the lid I cooked for another couple of minutes to make it semi dry.
Sprinkle chopped coriander on top.
Serve with steamed rice or roti.