The Mutton Xacuti has become my favorite way to cook mutton when we’re receiving guests, there a bunch of reasons for the same. Although the prep time takes a bit, once you’re ready you just leave it to slow cook on the fire giving you ample of time to yap.

The second and very obvious reason is that who’ever eats it enjoys it and the final reason is it can be easily adapted to a variety of pallets without loosing its authenticity, more on that as we do the recipe.

If you have been wondering how to make Mutton Xacuti? You’re at the right place. These simple step by step instructions are going to help you create the best Goan Mutton Xacuti guaranteed 🙂 It’s been so long since we had the Chicken Xacuti recipe up, if you haven’t tried that you can. But for now lets get started, in the picture below are the Xacuti masala ingredients.

Ingredients

• 1 Kg Mutton
• 6 Red Kashmiri Chillies
• 1/2 Scraped Coconut (250 Grams)
• 1 Tsp Cloves
• 1 Tsp Haldi Powder
• 8 Pepper Corns
• 1 Tsp Jeera (Cumin)
• 1/4 Tsp Methi (Fenugreek) Seeds
• 4 - 5 Garlic Cloves
• 1/2 Inch Ginger
• 2 Inch Cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp Khus Khus (Poppy Seeds)
• 1 Tbsp Corriander Seeds
• 1/2 Tsp Til (Sesame Seeds)
• 1/2 Onion
• Few Small Round Potatoes
• Few Small Onions
• Dash of Nutmeg
• Small Bits of Coconut

The last four in the list above aren’t meant to be ground with the masala, they are added during the process of making the dish. This include the onions and potatoes that you see below.

Unlike Chicken the marination of Mutton is a much longer process and there are multiple ways of doing it naturally, raw papaya mashed with its skin or yogurt whichever you choose. I do yogurt for an hour before cooking it, not too much just around a 100 grams. Although this process isn’t part of the Authentic Xacuti but it helps speed up the cooking process.

Salt the mutton a little as well.

While the mutton is marinating you can start preparing the masala. Again there are two ways this can be done, the following process is my mother’s method. You start frying each ingredient separately until you get their aromas or they splutter.

Heat up a little oil and start the process by frying the Kashmiri chillies and then move on to the methi seeds.

Then you add the cumin, don’t forget to give all the ingredients a quick stir so they are fried evenly.

Next add the Cinnamon and post that the Khus Khus

So it seriously takes a bit of time to do it the good old way where you extract the flavor from each ingredient. You have to have patience, kind of rare to find these days when everything externally is moving faster, but this is zen, cooking can become a meditation.

Add the coriander, and the onions, please cut the onions finer than what is done here 🙂

Drop in the Haldi powder and the scraped coconut and whatever else remains.

Fry them well together and you’re ready to pop it into a blender when it cools down a bit.

Blend it well together, add a bit of water if you need too but not too much.

Now this is how I do it, instead of frying each and every ingredient I just grind all of them together and then fry the xacuti masala until I get a dark brown shade. I use less water while grinding it so it speeds up the process.

If you would like a darker colour to the xacuti after blending the masala, you can do this as well. Heat up a little oil and fry the masala again.

I don’t stir it continuously I let it get a little touched so the colour comes in faster. Once you get it nice and brown add the mutton to the masala.

Once that’s done, clean up your blender with a little water to get all the masala out and to make sure the meat is under the gravy level so it cooks evenly.

Cover it with a lid and give it a stir once in a while. After half an hour to forty minutes your mutton should be close to getting done.

Add the potatoes to cook along with the mutton, then add a dash of nutmeg and give it a stir. At this time you can also add bits of coconut which we never had, I prefer to add more coconut milk and coconut to the dish while cooking instead of water incase you need more gravy 🙂

When the potatoes are nearly done, drop in the onions. I prefer small whole onions as they retain their juice and add a different flavour to the palette when you eat them. Sweet and juicy, yum yum.

Give the onions five to ten minutes and there you have it, the Mutton Xacuti is ready! This is hands down one of the best goan recipe you’re going to find on the internet. The out come takes delicious to a whole different level, enjoy!