Laal Maas Recipe, A Rajasthani mutton dish which is popular among the royalties. Laal Maas also known as Laal Maans, Ratto Maans. Tender mutton is cooked in a spiced yogurt sauce made with kashmiri chillies, coriander, onions, ginger and garlic. This dish pairs well with bajra roti, steamed rice or jeera rice.
Laal Maas
I came across this recipe from a cooking show hosted by david rocco. I fell in love with it because of its simplicity because it uses few simple spices and spice powders. The bright red colour with a thin layer of ghee floating on top makes it so appetizing.
This curry is made with mutton or lamb. It goes well with pretty much anything, specially chapati, rice, curd rice, coconut rice, parotta or anything your heart desire.
About Laal Maas
Laal maas is a popular spicy mutton dish from Rajasthan. It is also known as Ratto Maans. 'Laal' means Red and 'Maas' means Mutton. The dish is known for its iconic red colour. Tender pieces of lamb cooked in a yogurt sauce with kashmiri chilli powder, coriander, ginger & garlic.
Traditionally, laal maas was made with wild game meat (jungli maas), such as boar or deer. It was a favourite among the royalties. This traditional Rajasthani laal maas is made with lots of dry red chillies and can be served with phulka or roti.
One tip I can give you is use good quality ghee and use Kashmiri chilli powder. Some people prefer to use mustard oil also.
I started the cooking process of laal maas in a cast iron pot. It helps searing the meat and onions better. Once I build the curry I can choose cooking it in pressure cooker or in a pot.
If I had sometime I would choose to cook the laal maas in a regular pot low and slow. But I choose to cook in pressure cooker so it cooks faster.
Related Recipes
How to Smoke Laal Maas
To get authentic restaurant style taste, you can choose to smoke the entire dish. Once the laal maas is done cooking. Remove it to a serving bowl which has a lid fitting lid.
Heat a piece of charcoal till red. Meanwhile make a cup shape using aluminium foil. You can use a small bowl. Keep the foil cup on the top of the gravy, and place the hot charcoal piece inside the cup.
Top with few pieces of cloves over the charcoal. Drizzle a teaspoon of ghee over the charcoal. Immediately cover the pan with a tight fitting lid and let it smoke for 2 to 3 minutes.Now remove the cup carefully and mix well. Smoky flavoured laal maans is ready to serve.
Ingredients
- Mutton | Lamb - The recipe calls for tender pieces of lamb or mutton with bone-in. But you can opt for boneless meat as per your convenience.
- Yogurt | Dahi - The sauce for laal maas is made with yogurt. Use thick creamy curd for texture.
- Spice Powders - kashmiri chilli powder adds colour to the gravy. Coriander powder, cumin powder and turmeric is purely for flavour.
- Onions - The authentic recipe doesn't uses onions. But I like to add sliced onions for flavour and sweetness.
- Whole Spices - Black cardamom, black peppercorn, cinnamon and green cardamom is used.
- Ginger & Garlic - freshly crushed ginger and garlic adds aroma to the dish which enhances the flavour profile.
- Ghee - ghee or clarified butter adds rich taste to the dish.
Step by Step Pictures
Mixing Sauce
1)First let's mix the sauce for the curry. Take thick curd in a bowl. Make sure the yogurt is thick and not too sour. A little sour taste is fine. Yogurt makes the base of the curry.
2)Add in Kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder and coriander powder. Kashmiri mirch adds the iconic red colour to the gravy.
3)Mix this really well till the yogurt incorporates into the spice powders and creates a smooth sauce.
Tempering Spices
4)I used my dutch oven to cook the gravy. But you can cook this in a pressure cooker. Pressure cooker is faster way to cooking. Heat ghee in the pot, the ghee which I used is buffalo ghee.
5)Add in black cardamom, cinnamon, green cardamom, black peppercorn. let it sizzle in the ghee for few minutes.
6)Add in peeled and thinly sliced onions.
7)Stir the onions into the ghee. take your time to cook onions. It has to turn golde and caramelized.
8)This is the colour you are looking for. It adds for sweetness and flavour.
Searing Mutton
9)Add in tender pieces of mutton into the fried onions.
10)Sear the mutton pieces for 5 to 10 minutes till the lamb gets nice colour.
11)Add in ginger garlic paste and salt.
12)Saute the ginger garlic paste for couple of minutes.
13)Reduce the flame and add in yogurt mixture.
14)Stir the yogurt into the seared meat. Cook on low heat till mutton is well coated in the yogurt sauce. Cook for at least 5 minutes to create flavour.
Cooking Mutton
15)Pour in enough water to cover the meat. Give it a good stir. If you are cooking this in a regular pot, it might take around 2 hours. You might need to add more hot water if the gravy gets too dry.
16)But I transferred it into the pressure cooker. This way the mutton cooks faster.
17)Cover and pressure cook for 5 to 6 whistle. Once the mutton is cooked, turn off the heat and let the steam escape by itself.
18)Open the cooker. There will be a red layer of ghee floating on top.
19)Laal maas ready to serve.
Expert Tips
- Thick yogurt is preferred to make the curry. You can opt for dahi as well.
- Use tender pieces of meat for even and faster cooking.
- Kashmiri chilli powder is used in the gravy for colour. If you are using regular chilli powder, use less.
- You can make the curry with chicken as well.
📖 Get Recipe
Laal Maas Recipe | Rajasthani Laal Maans Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 500 grams Mutton
- 3 large Onion peeled and sliced thinly
- 1 tablespoon Ginger Garlic Paste
- 2 teaspoon Salt or to taste
For Yogurt Sauce
- 1 cup Yogurt (Thick Curd)
- 3 tablespoon Kashmiri Chilli Powder
- 2 tablespoon Coriander Powder
- 1 teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- 2 teaspoon Roasted Cumin powder
For Tempering
- 4 tablespoon Ghee
- 1 stick Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Black Peppercorn
- 2 no Black Cardamom
- 4 no Green Cardamom
Instructions
- Take yogurt, chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder in a bowl, mix well and set aside.
- Heat ghee in a cooking pot, add in cinnamon, green cardamom, black pepper and black cardamom. Let them sizzle for couple of minutes.
- Now add in sliced onions onions. Stir and cook till golden brown. Onions should turn golden brown.
- Add in mutton and toss well in the onions till it seared. You have to sear the mutton for 5 to 7 minutes till it gets colour.
- Add in salt and ginger garlic paste and stir into the mutton for 2 more minutes.
- Now add in yogurt spice mix and mix well till the colour darkens. It will take 10 minutes to sear. Pour enough water to cover the meat.
- Bring this to a full boil. Reduce the flame to lowest possible. If you are cooking this in a regular pot, it might take around 2 hours. You might need to add more hot water if the gravy gets too dry.
- I transferred to a pressure cooker for faster cooking. Cover and pressure cook for 5 to 6 whistle. Turn off the heat and let the steam escape all by itself.
- Now open the cooker. You will see a red layer of oil floating on top. Thats it your laal maas is ready to serve. Enjoy with rice, paratha or naan.
Nutrition
Tried this Recipe
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sutapa Purkayastha
Then , how you get this rich red colour of the curry ?
Anonymous
where did she get red color from in the pot does not look red an less she put lots of food color
Bango Tango
The color is from the oil settling on the top after a rest period. If you stirred it up and resuspended the oil the color would return to a creamy yellow.
Unknown
no that red colour is because of different chilli powder
vijai kumar
Looking tempt sis.post pad Thai recipe .
Anonymous
It looks yum! I came across another recipe on chatorediaries which is different from this one and I thought it was original. Will try this recipe and see which is better.
Aarthi
@sutapa Purkayasthait is from the kashmiri chilli powder
Anonymous
Something looks wrong wid ur last 2 pics. The curry color has suddenly turned red from brown. r u bullshitting us?
Aarthi
@AnonymousIt is because those cooking pictures are taken at night without any flash and the main presentation pics are taken in the morning. Hence the difference.
P.S. Please avoid giving rude comments. Comment with some manners.
Anonymous
Instead of ghee can we use oil...
Anonymous
It looks yumm am sure it.will taste yummy
Anonymous
Hi Aarthi - You are doing a wonderful job. It takes patience to capture so many pics and write articulate recipes and to do it day after day, it certainly requires appreciation.
Please refrain from addressing those filthy comments. Just ignore.
I just want to make sure you are appreciated.
- Kay
Aarthi
@AnonymousYes u can use oil
safiya
Super easy mutton curry ....danku for sharing...
Anonymous
Hi Aarthi! This was so quick n easy..... Damn tasty...teamed it up with ghee rice...
Thanks for the step by step receipe.....
Anonymous
I tried this recipe and it turned out super delicious... Thanks for sharing it with us but i couldn't get the bright red colour like yours in tbe last pic....can i put some food color...?
Aarthi
@Anonymousif u use kashmiri chilli, you will get that colour.
Anonymous
Hi aarti ur recipies r really gud hve tried few but yes the red colour is a bit hard to get ...hve tried all different chills ...without results:( ...rest keep up the gud wrk.....👍
Cook With Sally
Hi Aarthi, I fell in love with the colour of this curry so I decided to make, I hope you did not mind as I added a link to you,I think that's fair. I did not get a good photo like yours but it turn out to be amazing.
Thank you Sally
Anonymous
half kg onions means how many medium or large sized onions ? that coriander pwdr in the pic looks more than a tablespoon. is it so ?
Aarthi
@Anonymoushalf kg will be around 3 large onions. And coriander powder is 1 tblspn
Nikitha Muttaluri
Tried this one after seeing the mouthwatering pic , it didn't disappoint me . It was just delicious , I even managed to get a colour similar ( not exactly though 😊) to the pic ... Thanks .
rashmi raman
Hi
U r doing a great job ur mutton curry looks like rogangosh is it the same
Anonymous
Have tried this one. Just to add that color and taste comes from Kashmiri Mirch and Dahi (Curd) that you use. Super delicious.
Ivory Moon
I've never head Lamb before, your dish looks great, and i love indian food, i am going to check out your other recipes! Thank you!
Anonymous
Hey Arati,
Can you add a provision in your blog to save the recipe ,say like to Bigoven or something similar..? It would be really helpful
siddharthanigam
Don't we have to add any Masala ( Garam masala or Mutton ready mix masala ) ??
Jovial Fernandes
Hi.. What I do is,
Use Mutton from younger animal.. Meat is more tender..
After washing this meat, I marinate it overnight with curd and powder spices as mentioned in your recipe... I feel that the curd tenderises the meat further and let's it soak in the flavours... Result,.. Meat so tender it melts in the mouth..
Jovial Fernandes
Those asking why the colour has turned red its because after cooking the Kashmir chili powder gives that colour to the fat / ghee making the dish appear red...
Happens with my Pork Vindaloo too 😄
Anonymous
Can we cook it without pressure cooker, please share the recipe
Yogsingh
Thanks . Can I use Mustard oil ?
John Hill
Made this couple times with lamb shoulder chops cut up. Its great, more wooried about the taste than colour but it seems to come out right using kashmiri powder.
Craig
Thank you for this recipe! Been always cooking in a Kadam after pressure cooking the mutton. Will try this curry out on Sunday
Anonymous
can you use other meats instead of mutton?
Abby
Hi mam. I need a suggestion from you. .
First of all thanks for ur wonderful receipes. .i tried a lot of receipes of Urs.all came out very well..
Actually I am a thinking to buy a oven..already in am having ifb microwave oven. I am interested in preparing cakes for my family. .so i thought of buying an oven.which one will be the best for cakes and grills.whether I can go for otg or conventional oven or otg with fan..I am in confused of these 3 types yar. Can u give me a good idea.
TIA
Aarthi
you can check my meet my oven post.
Keshab Dimri
This looks great, I am sure would taste heavenly too. But this is not rajasthani Laal Maans. You need to add cloves & clove powder, there should be no corainder powder. Make chilli paste using mathania chillies 7 add. Add ghee garlic tadhka in end. Also add smoke (dhungar) in the end.
Mandeep Luthra
Hi Keshab !
Try Laal Maas recipe by RB. That one is authentic . Good luck
Pughy
Red colour is from the Kashmiri chilli powder. I use the same in chicken tikka to achieve the right colour and spicy ness all in one. No artificial colours for me...
Vikash Mishra
wow, what an amazing non-veg recipe is this!! thanks for sharing, I will definitely try to cook this recipe by following your instruction..
L. Devaraj
Hi Aarti,
I followed your recipe and used almost all the ingredient listed except for ghee, (which I did not have ), I used oil.
You were right, the Kashmiri chilli powder gave the curry the most beautiful red colour !
My husband, my 2 guests loved it 🙂
Thank you very much for sharing this recipe.
The curry turned out absolutely delicious!!!!!
patrick tan
thanks very much for the recipe. Turned out great!
Richa Gupta
I want to see veg korma recipe. When I click the image it is showing me different recipe of white veg kurma. Why is that?
GAUTAM
PLEASE CROSS CHECK YOUR READY TO SERVE COOKER PIC AND RECIPE PIC
HUGE DIFFRENCE
Aarthi
The color variation is mostly due to camera lighting and photography settings. Since many of you have pointed this out over the years, I decided to recreate the dish using the same recipe. The recipe is unchanged except for a few small improvements. I hope this updated version clears up any confusion. Thank you for your feedback!