Snacks & street food · Chettinad

Chettinad Goat Pepper Fry

Bone-in goat cooked soft, then roasted dark with shallots, curry leaves and a freshly ground masala of black pepper and fennel. Hot, fragrant and dry enough to pick up with your fingers.

Chettinad Goat Pepper Fry

Prep 20 min · Cook 45 min · Total 65 min · Serves 4

Ingredients

To cook the goat

  • 750 g Goat on the bone, curry cut
  • ½ tsp Turmeric
  • 1 tbsp Ginger-garlic paste
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • ¾ cup Water

Pepper masala (dry-roast and grind)

  • 1 ½ tbsp Black peppercorns
  • 1 tbsp Fennel seeds
  • 1 tbsp Coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp Cumin seeds
  • 3 Dried red chillies

Fry

  • 4 tbsp Gingelly (sesame) oil
  • 1 inch Cinnamon stick
  • 3 Cloves
  • 1 tsp Fennel seeds
  • 3 sprigs Curry leaves
  • 15 Shallots (small onions), sliced
  • 3 Green chillies, slit
  • 1 Tomato, chopped
  • ½ tsp Red chilli powder
  • Salt to taste, to taste

Method

  1. Cook the goat. Put the goat, turmeric, ginger-garlic paste, salt and water in a pressure cooker. Cook on high to 4 whistles, then on low for 10 minutes, and let the pressure drop by itself. On the stovetop, simmer covered in a heavy pan for 60 to 75 minutes until tender, adding water if it dries out. Keep the stock.
  2. Make the pepper masala. Dry-roast the peppercorns, fennel, coriander, cumin and red chillies in a small pan over low heat until fragrant and a shade darker. Cool and grind to a coarse powder.
  3. Fry the shallots. Heat the oil in a wide kadai. Add the cinnamon, cloves, fennel and curry leaves, then the shallots and green chillies. Fry until the shallots are soft and well browned.
  4. Add tomato. Add the tomato and chilli powder and cook until the tomato collapses and oil separates.
  5. Roast the goat. Add the goat and its stock and cook on high heat, stirring, until the liquid has nearly gone. Sprinkle in three-quarters of the pepper masala and keep roasting, scraping the pan, until the pieces are dark and coated and there is just oil left.
  6. Finish. Taste for salt, add the rest of the pepper masala and a few fresh curry leaves, toss for a minute and serve with rasam rice, parotta or as a starter.

Tips

Grind the pepper fresh and keep it coarse: ready-made pepper powder makes it flat and bitter. Don't rush the final roast; the dark crust on the pieces is the whole point.