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Often the word “Kolhapuri” is used interchangeably for spicy. Today we’re going to change that. This cuisine is much more than just spicy. Also, being from the same place, I am exercising some of my self-proclaimed authority on this subject to impart some gyaan 😎. Let me break it down for you. This how the article is divided —
- Fundamental Ingredients
- Two ways to cook the meat
- Recipe
There are two key ingredients that you need to get right in Kolhapuri cuisine — the Kolhapuri Chutney and the Hirva Masala. If you get this right, you can make the most authentic tasting food at home.
Kolhapuri Chutney
First off, it’s a dry powder. It’s not a wet “chutney” like how you get with say a paneer tikka or a dosa. There are a lot of such chutneys in Maharashtrian cuisine — most of them can also be directly consumed. Even this chutney can be had directly with a bit of oil or curd with rice/roti. This spice mix is the essence of Kolhapuri cuisine. Any dish that has “Kolhapuri” prefixed to it, must have this chutney as an ingredient. It is a magical spice and you can skip almost every masala in your cooking if you get your hands on it (except salt, turmeric and red chilly powder for color). A mix of Laungi Mirchi found in the region and Byadgi Mirchi found in Karnataka is the base ingredient of this masala. I will be covering the preparation of this chutney in another post. Most homes in Kolhapur prepare the chutney themselves and store it for the whole year. You can, however, get good chutney in packed form also. However, I have not seen this spice being available anywhere outside of Maharashtra.
Hirva Masala
This masala, which forms the base of the gravy, is used in many Maharashtrian dishes— be it Kolhapuri Mutton, Masale bhaat (fried rice), Misal or Bharli Wangi (stuffed aubergines).
I will not be measuring ingredients to a gram here. The basic ingredients of this masala are fresh coconut, coriander leaves, ginger, garlic, and green chili optionally. You have some leeway here to adjust the proportions as per your taste. For me, the proportions would be a cup of coconut, a cup of coriander, an inch of ginger, 7–8 cloves of garlic and a couple of chillis.
In Kolhapur, some people use dry coconut, some use fresh and some use a mix of the two. Dry coconut gives you a very rich taste and a stronger flavor of coconut but can make your dish heavier. I recommend you use a mix of two. If you don’t have access to dry coconut, skip it. You can make this masala in bulk and deep freeze it for the future.
Wanna kick it up a notch? Add some “Pandhra” Masala as well for extra richness.
Pandhra Masala (Optional)
To make this, dry roast some sesame and poppy seeds (til and khus khus) in equal amounts. Throw it in the grinder with a bit of water to make a wet paste. Simple. This paste can be added at the start of the cooking to add more nuttiness and richness to our dish. These two seeds are high in oils (cholesterol) and they get released into the gravy as you cook it. What makes the flavors even richer is when you let it sit for some hours or perhaps a day. This is because of the presence of coconut and seeds that release oil. If you are using fresh coconut for Hirwa masala, then you can add a bit of dry coconut to this masala as well. Skip this if you want to keep the cholesterol profile of your food low.
Note: Hirva means green and Pandhra means white in Marathi
There is a lot of “Nazakat”, in the way people of Kolhapur handle their meat in the kitchen. They are not big on marination of the meat as the final product is usually a gravy and not a kebab. The bigger reason, however, is the kind of meat you get in the region. Bijapur is the supplier of mutton for the most part of Maharashtra and southern states. As far as my experience goes, this variety of meat is optimized for gravies and usually cooks faster than what you get in the north.
Method 1 — Prepare the meat stock (Rassa) and take out the meat separately for gravy (Sukka)
This is the default method. We start with oil, some whole spices and a lot of onions. Sauté the meat and prepare stock with lots of water. The meat is then taken out after it gets cooked, to be used for a thicker gravy called Sukka made with Kolhapuri masala and Hirva Masala. The stock also gets spiced with Kolhapuri masala to become Rassa. In local lingo, this dish is referred to as “Sukka-Rassa”.
Method 2 — Prepare a single gravy
This is what I usually do, and what we will be doing in the recipe as well. This is a no-fuss, effective and quicker method. You start pretty much the same, except, we don’t make any stock here. We cook the Kolhapuri chutney, Hirva Masala, and the meat together.
Now, Let’s see the recipe.
