Khasi ko Masu

the Nepali goat curry of festival and Saturday: bone-in meat browned hard, then stewed with whole black cardamom from the hills above, timur pepper, and turmeric until the sauce clings to the bone

Origin: Nepal

From the journey of Cardamom.

Khasi ko masu is castrated goat, and the phrase names the most important meat dish in Nepali cooking. It belongs to Saturday, the single day of the Nepali week, and above all to Dashain, when goats are slaughtered across the country and every part of the animal is used across several days of cooking. It is a household dish rather than a restaurant one, and there is no fixed recipe so much as a shared method. The spicing tells you where you are. Black cardamom goes in whole, two or three bruised pods to a kilogramme of meat, and it is not a background note: Nepal grows this spice, in the hills of the east around Ilam and Taplejung and across the border in Sikkim, and it is used with the confidence of a place that has it cheaply. The smoke from the bhatti drying goes straight into the gravy and does work that no amount of browning could. Alongside it goes timur, Nepali Sichuan pepper, which supplies the faint numbing tingle that separates a Nepali curry from an Indian one. The technique is worth understanding. The meat is browned hard and dry first, then cooked with very little added liquid, so that what becomes the sauce is largely what comes out of the goat. A Nepali masu is not a gravy dish; the sauce should be scant, dark, and clinging, and it is eaten with rice and often with a bowl of the broth alongside.

Ingredients

Meat

1 kg bone-in goat or mutton, cut into large pieces

Whole spices

3 whole black cardamom pods, bruised
2 whole bay leaves
1 stick cassia bark, about 5 cm
1 tsp timur (Nepali Sichuan pepper), lightly crushed
3 whole dried red chillies

Base

3 large onions, finely sliced
2 tbsp ginger and garlic, pounded to a paste
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
4 tbsp mustard oil
2 tsp sea salt, or to taste

Ground spices

1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chilli powder, or to taste

To finish

1 handful coriander leaves, chopped, to finish

Method

Heat the mustard oil in a heavy pot until it just begins to smoke, then take it off the heat for a moment to cool slightly.
Return to the heat and add the black cardamom, bay, cassia, dried chillies, and timur. Let them sizzle for thirty seconds until fragrant.
Add the sliced onions and cook over a medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes until deeply browned, stirring often.
Stir in the ginger-garlic paste and cook for two minutes, then the ground spices for one minute more, then the tomatoes, cooking until they collapse and the oil separates.
Add the goat and salt, raise the heat, and brown the meat hard in the masala for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring so it catches without burning.
Add just 250 ml of hot water, cover tightly, and simmer very gently for an hour to an hour and a half, until the meat pulls from the bone. Add a splash more only if it threatens to catch.
Uncover, raise the heat, and reduce until the sauce coats the meat. Scatter with coriander and serve with rice.

Notes

Black cardamom is not optional here and green cardamom is not a substitute: the two are different species and the smoky, camphorous character of the Himalayan pod is the point. Timur is the Nepali relative of Sichuan pepper and gives a citrusy numbing tingle; Sichuan peppercorns are the nearest substitute. Mustard oil should be a culinary grade sold for cooking. Goat is traditional and mutton works; lamb is sweeter and slightly wrong but acceptable. The dish improves overnight. Serve with plain rice, a dal, and a sharp pickled achar, which is how it is eaten in Nepal.

The Gastrographer

Name: Khasi ko Masu
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Nepal
Ingredients: 1 kg bone-in goat or mutton, cut into large pieces; 3 whole black cardamom pods, bruised; 2 whole bay leaves; 1 stick cassia bark, about 5 cm; 1 tsp timur (Nepali Sichuan pepper), lightly crushed; 3 whole dried red chillies; 3 large onions, finely sliced; 2 tbsp ginger and garlic, pounded to a paste; 2 medium tomatoes, chopped; 1 tsp ground turmeric; 2 tsp ground coriander; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp chilli powder, or to taste; 4 tbsp mustard oil; 2 tsp sea salt, or to taste; 1 handful coriander leaves, chopped, to finish

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control