Slow Cooked Mutton Chops with Caramelised Onions

Mutton chops are of two kinds - the potato covered croquette like ones like these, and the delicious cut of meat that I cooked for dinner.

These babies were lying in my freezer forever. I had marinated them and bunged them in hoping to cook them soon but somehow the opportunity just never came. Today we had nothing on the agenda and dinner was going to be at home. I had these out and thawing and they were ready to be cooked in a few hours. The initial plan had been a sort of gravy and I had planned to fool around with poppy seed paste and other bits and pieces but somehow I wasn't in the mood for something fussy. So the chops ended up being slowly pan fried with a generous handful of sliced onions.

Grilled Chops with Caramelised Onions

Marinate a few chops with curd, ginger garlic paste, salt, turmeric, cumin powder, a good dash of coriander powder, and your favourite garam masala blend. Let it marinate for a good six hours or overnight in your fridge.

Slice a couple of onions finely. In a flat non stick pan heat a couple of tablespoons of any neutral oil. Once the oil is hot add the onions and fry gently till they begin to turn pink. Add the chops and fry on high heat for a couple of minutes turning the chops to sear all sides.

Lower the heat and cover the pan with a lid that fits. Let the chops cook undisturbed for 15 minutes. Turn them over and cover and cook again for another 10 to 15 minutes. Add any marinade that's left in the bowl. Don't add any water.  Let the chops cook on low heat as slowly as possible. Mine took around an hour to cook. Just check occasionally to ensure that nothing's getting burned.

The chops will have no gravy, just the darkly caramelised onions that have absorbed the marinade and the flavours of the meat.

Serve these as a starter on their own. Be sure to add some of the onions to each serving. Eat with your fingers and I promise you, you will lick them clean. A simple no fuss dish, slowly cooked. Poetry on a plate.

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