I have only eaten curry and rice/roti and biryani’s (all kinds) but have never heard of or experienced a Kalya before.
Ingredients
1.5 kgs Oxtail
2 teaspoons ginger garlic (crushed)
1 cup yoghurt
2 medium onions (sliced finely)
1 tin tomato puree (425gr)
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon whole jeera seeds
½ teaspoon whole soomph seeds
4 – 5 green chillies slit
¼ teaspoon crushed saffron (seeped)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
3 – 4 teaspoons chilli powder (depending on how hot you want it)
2 teaspoons dhunia/jeera powder (prefer freshly ground – roast and grind in coffee grinder)
2 teaspoons salt (or salt to taste)
1 teaspoon sugar
½ cup ghee/oil
6 – 8 potatoes (I used 4)
6 boiled eggs (I used 4)
3 sticks cinnamon
5 cloves
6 peppercorns
4 elachi
Curry leaves
Chopped dhunia
Method:
THIS CAN BE DONE THE NIGHT BEFORE AND LEFT TO MARINATE IN THE REFRIGERATOR.
(I marinated for 3 hours, after first soaking oxtail in cold water with 2 tsp bicarbonate soda, rinsing thoroughly and patting dry).
Place in a dish together with ginger/garlic.
Fry the onion in pan with ghee and coconut oil until it is slightly darker than golden brown.
Drain on paper towel until all oil drains off, then press through a wire sieve and crush and add to meat.
Your cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns and elachi should be roasted in a frying pan, leave to cool and then grind in a coffee grinder.
Add to meat. (You can add it whole but you risk biting into it whole
Now add the yogurt, vinegar, tomato puree, salt, sugar, green chillies, chillie powder, dhunia/jeera powder, saffron and turmeric powder.
Massage well and leave to marinate 3 hours, preferably overnight in the fridge.
I parboiled the potatoes in salted water, drained, sprinkled with egg yellow and fried in ghee to keep firm.
Add ghee/oil to the Pressure Cooker and sauté for 1 – 2 minutes.
Then add the marinated meat together with all marinade and I cooked on high for 75 minutes. (I think 60 minutes should do it though).
Add the potatoes (carefully arrange them over the meat) and gently spoon the curry (sauce) from the meat over the potatoes.
I then put the cooker to low pressure for 15 minutes until potatoes done and curry thickened.
Place the peeled boiled eggs over.
Simmer a further 5 – 8 minutes. (I didn’t I arranged them after plating).
Garnish with fresh dhania.
Lately I noted quite a few postings on various Facebook groups (with interest) of Kalya so I decided to try it seeing that all the ingredients are readily at hand. I tried it with Oxtail and used a Pressure Cooker. I used ESHANA SULEMAN’S recipe which Eshana tweaked to perfection. I don’t say mine came out perfect, but it was darn, darn good. But I think the pressure cooker yielded too much gravy. I used no water whatsoever. Please Note that whilst I followed Eshana’s recipe literally to the letter, it is not Verbatim.
Prepared, tried and tested by: Melanie Kramar
