Hyderabadi Marag

Hyderabadi Marag:
Hyderabadi Marag or Marag is a spicy mutton soup served as a starter in Hyderabad, India and part of Hyderabadi cuisine. It is prepared from tender mutton with bone. It is thin soup. The soup has become one of the starters at Hyderabadi weddings.

I have never had Marag before. It is a hyderabadi soup / curry especially served during weddings as a soup or with sheermal and rumali roti. It is of Arabic origin and adapted to Indian taste by adding additional flavors.
My friend has been mentioning Marag on several occasions and now that I am on a cooking spree I thought I should give it a go. It was delicious and so filling. It was also very rich and heavy. I will keep this for special occasions or when requested by my husband again. It is worth making as it tastes really very good. I do not eat a lot of spice. I cut down the spice level than called for in the recipe but I will be posting the recipe as is. You can decide on the spice level accordingly.

Here is the recipe.

It is prepared in 2 stages.

Ingredients :

Step 1:
Mutton - 250 gms (with bone)
Ginger garlic Paste - 1.5 Tablespoons
Turmeric Powder a pinch
Black Peppercorns - 1 Teaspoon
Caraway seeds (Shahzeera) - 1/2 Teaspoon
Coriander Leaves - 6 Tablespoons chopped
Mint Leaves - 3 Tablespoons
Salt to Taste
Water - 4 cups

Step 2:
Onion - 1/2 medium size sliced finely and fried to golden brown then ground to a paste
Coconut - 2 Tablespoons desiccated or shredded and then roasted
Cashew nut - 5 ground to a paste
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1/2 Tablespoon
Green Chilli - 3 ground to a paste (I used only 1)
Cinnamon - 1.2 inch
Cardamom - 2
Coriander Powder - 1/2 Teaspoon
Cumin powder - 1/2 Teaspoon
Garam Masala - 1/2 Teaspoon
Pepper Powder - 1/2 Teaspoon
Cooking Oil - 2 Tablespoons
Ghee (Clarified Butter) - 1 Teaspoon
Yogurt - 100 grams
coriander leaves - 2 Tablespoons chopped
Water as required
Salt to taste
Method :
1. Clean and wash the mutton pieces. Remove all the water and add it to a pressure cooker with all the ingredients under step 1. I first pressure cooked for 5 minutes (whistles for 5 minutes) with 2.5 cups of water. Then again pressure cooked for 5 minutes (whistles for 5 minutes) with 1.5 cups of water.
2. In a non-stick cooking vessel, heat oil (you can use oil in which you fried onions) and ghee.
3. Add the cinnamon and cardamon and fry for a minute
4. Add  the ginger garlic paste and the green chilli paste. Stir well and fry till the ginger garlic paste starts to turn brown.
5. Add the onion paste, cashew paste and the roasted coconut.
6. Fry till oil starts separating. At any stage if you suspect burning or sticking to the bottom then add water by tablespoons at a time.
7. Add coriander leaves and yogurt and start frying / stirring on low flame for about 30 minutes. The marag will be tastier as much as it is fried this way. Keep adding water little by little whenever there is any sticking or burning.
8. After about 15-20 minutes of frying, add the coriander powder, cumin powder and the garam masala powder and keep stirring.
9. After 5 minutes, add the pepper powder and salt.
10. Finally add the cooked meat along with all the soup which you had cooked using step 1 ingredients.
11. Adjust the water consistency according to requirement and boil for about 5 minutes.
12. Marag is ready. Serve as a soup or with any type of bread like rumali roti, naan etc.

                                     

Enjoy Marag!!