Mutton itself is a very tasty thing.  There are very few people who do not like mutton. People who do not eat mutton are mainly for health purpose. Heart patients in general avoid mutton because it contains a great amount of fat.

Here is an oil free preparation of mutton which can be tried even by the patients.  It is very simple and nutritious. It takes little time to be cooked. All you need is marinating for at least twelve hours.

Ingredients:

•    500 grams mutton
•    500 grams yogurt
•    2 large onion
•    ½ inch ginger
•    5-6 cloves of garlic
•    1 inch cinnamon
•    5-6 green cardamom
•    2 cloves
•    1/4th nutmeg
•    Black pepper
•    Salt
•    Sugar
•    3-4 strands  of saffron
•    ½ cup milk

Preparation:

Wash mutton properly and cut them into small pieces. Grind onion, ginger and garlic into smooth paste. Beat yogurt very well. Now in a bowl mix yogurt, onion, garlic and ginger paste. Add salt and sugar to taste in it and mix them also.

Now marinate the meat in this marinade. Keep them over night in refrigerator. Crush black pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom and clove into fine powder and preserve them into airtight container.  Other wise the smell will go out. Soak saffron in a cup of milk and keep the milk in the refrigerator overnight.

Process:

Take out the marinated mutton from the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking for thawing purpose. Now on a non stick pan place the mutton pieces only. Cook them on low flame. When one side gets toasted, change the side and toast the other side also.

When the mutton turns brown, remove them from the pan and keep them aside. Then add the spices on the pan and cook. Stir continuously otherwise the spices may stick to the pan. Remember the whole preparation is oil free. When the raw smell of spices is out add the toasted mutton pieces in the spices.

Add water and keep the lid on to make the mutton pieces tender.  It will not take much time to get tender because you have already   marinated the mutton for a day. When the whole thing turns into thick gravy, pore the cup of saffron milk for a beautiful color and smell. At last sprinkle the powdered spices for flavor. Stir the spices and move them from heat. Serve it hot with steamed rice or fresh bread.

You can make the same preparation with chicken and lamb meat.  They are soft and fatless in comparison to mutton. If you want to make the preparation with chicken, it will take very little time to get prepared.  Chicken flesh itself is very soft and it gets softer after getting marinated for a day. The preparation made by the chicken is so light that it is a favorite preparation of heart patients.

If you want to make the preparation hot you can also add red chili paste in the preparation or can boil green chili pieces along with the meat. If you do not like the flavor of cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg, you can also use chopped fresh parsley or coriander leaves accompanied with  black pepper powder.