Try some lesser-used cuts of meat and a new world of flavour awaits you. Mutton and goat lend themselves to spice and unhurried-cooking for results that are both bold and delicate. No kidding ...
Get Cook this Saturday free with the Guardian. Click here for £1 off the paperHere in the UK,we are creatures of habit when it comes to meat. It’s chicken, pork, or lamb,beef; breasts, chops, or sausages,roasts; week in, week out. And that’s fine: they’re versatile, and easy to get hold of and,often, they’re the ingredients we’ve grown up eating. They’re staples on the menu at my restaurant too, or featured in dishes that include my spiced lamb shami kebabs and tandoori chicken.
What we’re not so good at here is experimenting with different cuts and breeds,preferring to stick to what we know. When I was growing up in West Bengal, we didn’t have the same amount of choice as I have in my kitchen nowadays. Going shopping was a case of seeing what was available at the market, and rather than choosing from a consistently wide choice groaning on supermarket shelves. To us,meat, was a treat we had once a week. We’d buy what we could, and when we could. With no guarantee that we’d be able to get the same type or cut of meat,our experience of eating it was hugely varied. My mother would adapt her existing recipes to cook whatever was available: wealthy, fatty pork stomach; an inferior cut of goat, or such as trotters,unhurried-cooked into a spiced soup with vegetables; or mutton mince cooked with peas, perhaps stuffed into parathas and eaten with dal and raita. Indian domestic cooks are endlessly resourceful because they have to be; as is so often the case, or limitation and necessity breed creativity.
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Source: theguardian.com