Kosha Mangsho is a classic, every Bengali’s favorite meat stew. It is prepared on every special occasions, including Birthdays. The dish is emotions for us, and we never get bored with it. It is best paired with either Luchi or Basanti Pulao. But you can enjoy it even with paratha and plain white rice.
What is Kosha Mangsho?
Kosha Mangsho is a quintessential Bengali rich goat meat curry. Mangsho means meat and the term kosha comes from the word koshano, which means to slow cook in spices with minimal water so to create a spice coated velvety gravy.
Rich spiced gravy with juicy tender goat meat, this is every Bengali’s favorite Sunday meal! This dish is a Bengali delicacy that is often enjoyed with sweet saffron infused rice or with luchi (fried mini flat bread). But, it also tastes equally good with just plain Indian roti or steamed white rice.
What ingredients goes in Kosha Mangsho Recipe?
Red meat: Goat meat is authentic, but you can definitely try with lamb too or chicken if you like. Red meat takes time to cook hence this is always prepared on weekend when we have enough time in hand.
Onion, garlic, Ginger and Tomato: Like most Indian curries and stew, onion, garlic, ginger goes in the beginning of the cooking. And once soften, tomatoes are added along with mutton to create a rich stew.
Mustard Oil: Like most Bengali dishes, mustard oil is used. While you can surely use other variety oil, mustard oil does enhance the flavor.
Ghee: Right at the end of the cooking little amount of ghee goes in. It not only makes adds flavor, but also makes it taste so good.
Spices that go in:
Whole spices (cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf and clove) are added in the beginning. Right at the end, Bengali Gorom Moshala goes in.
I would highly recommend not to use the store bought Indian Garam Masala as the taste will be very different. Here is a link to the recipe of Bengali Gorom Moshala, which includes just three whole spices and extremely subtle in flavor.
It’s cultural in Bengali food to include a meat curry/stew in a Sunday meal. Most often, the first pick is mutton.
The two usual ways that I grew up enjoying goat meat was either a simple Sunday mutton curry or this kosha mangsho.
My Dad would visit the butcher shop early morning and grab the best cubes. After an elaborate breakfast, he would get into the kitchen and start on preparing the dish. Ma would prepare the rest of the side dishes.
Bengali meal is always a feast. By late afternoon hour, we would all gather on the table, hungry for mutton.
If you don’t like mutton, try the same dish with chicken or egg.
A Vegetarian substitute!
Ma makes this exact similar dish with either green jack fruit or with soya chunks. You can try it with cauliflower florets too.
Like most rich meat curries and stew, Kosha Mangsho tastes extra yummy on the next day.
Kosha Mangsho | Spiced Slow Cooked Mutton Stew
Kosha Mangsho is a classic, every Bengali's favorite meat stew. It is prepared on every special occasions, including Birthdays. The dish is emotions for us, and we never get bored with it. It is best paired with either Luchi or Basanti Pulao. But you can enjoy it even with paratha and plain white rice.
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb. goat pieces (mix of with bones and boneless)
- 1 small red onion, (6 oz each)
- 1 medium size tomato, 6.75 oz / 193 g
- 5 garlic cloves
- 1- inch ginger
- 3 fresh green chili
- 2 tablespoons mustard oil
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon ghee
spices
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 small cinnamon barks
- 6 green cardamoms
- 8 cloves
- 1 teaspoon kashmiri chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon fennel powder
- 1 teaspoon Bengali Garam Masala Powder
Instructions
- Thinly slice the onion and tomato. Keep both separately to be used later.
- Pound or grate the garlic, 1 green chili and ginger. Keep it aside to be used later.
- Place a heavy bottom pan on medium heat and pour the oil. Once the oil heats up, sprinkle the sugar followed by the whole spices. Stir around for a while and then, add the garlic,chili and ginger paste. Sauté for 1 minute.
- Drop the sliced onion, sprinkle the salt and stir around for 3 to 4 minutes or until mildly caramelized.
- In a bowl, add the turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, fennel powder and Kashmiri red chili powder along with a little water and whisk to mix.
- Add the spice paste to the onion and stir it around for a minute.
- Add the mutton and mix it all around evenly. Season with salt and let it cook for 2 minutes.
- Drop the sliced tomato, mix it again. Wash the spice paste bowl with 2 tablespoons water and pour that to the pan. Mix it around and now simmer to heat to medium low.
- You will slow cook the meat for 90 minutes, but check every 10 to 15 minutes and add 1/3 cup of water or a bit more if needed and mix it around. Initially, the meat will start to release juice and then, the color will also darken slowly. By 90 minutes, the meat should be tender.
- After the meat is cooked through, add the garam masala powder followed by little water and ghee.
- Stir and cook for 5 minutes.
Notes
Depending on the kind of meat you are using, you might need more or less time to prepare Kosha Mangsho.
Comments are closed.
Sonia
November 24, 2013 at 7:25 PMkosho mosho….mansho LOL! funny story behind this dish. I am pakka vegetarian your pic from Pinterest brought me here. Glad I did. Found a nice writing and story 🙂
Sonia
November 24, 2013 at 7:25 PMI mean to put ‘but’ after pakka vegetarian.
Joyti
November 24, 2013 at 7:44 PMLOL @ the story about your husband. Very cute 🙂
The photos are gorgeous, as always!
IshitaUnblogged
November 24, 2013 at 7:52 PMGood Morning! I am not even awake and here I am reading your ‘kosho bosho’!!! Couldn’t wait to see how your Kasha Mangsho looks like – oh god really can’t have enough of this and I like the adjective you have used ‘velvety mutton curry’. And on top of that, you have also paired it with Luchi and ‘dupur belar ghum’… choosing between the devil or the deep sea!
Also, reminds me of the adda we had for the Luchi post of mine – our tweetadda had been elaborately mentioned… http://ishitaunblogged.com/2013/02/18/luchi-featured-in-ahlan-gourmet-my-ode-to-phulko-luchi/
Medha
November 24, 2013 at 10:04 PMLove this post! What a beautiful story:) Gorgeous pictures as always!
Sarvani (baker in di
November 25, 2013 at 1:24 AM“kosho bosho”… hahahaaa!!! and I can even imagine your mum reactions.. with quite a few bong friends.. I all know about bong moms and their love for ‘jamai shoshti’!!! but this looks really good.. bookmarking it for next weekend with some parathas!!!
Reem
November 25, 2013 at 2:50 AMOk I have to say A’s name for this dish is really cute… Kosho B9sjo…
Its 3 am in the night… I am here unable to sleep n boom I see this n now Not only I cannot sleep but I am damn hungry tooooo… lol
Beautiful Babe… love the pics.
Reem
November 25, 2013 at 2:51 AMKosho Bosho* … I am Sooo Fed up with these phones… Grrrrr
indugetscooking
November 25, 2013 at 3:06 AMEven the name of mutton curry sounds musical in Bengali! Love the repetition of ‘O’ sounds. Curry looks absolutely yum!
Pia
November 25, 2013 at 9:53 AMKosho bosho 😀 that’s what you should call it! I love the name!
And I love your description of your Sundays back home – sounded so familiar. Just like the mangsho. It’s one of the traditions I’ve brought over to my life here. Sunday’s kosha mangsho.
Prerna
November 25, 2013 at 12:48 PMThis is how we cook mutton curry. But the bong name sounds so much better. You had me craving some right now 🙂
Lail | With A Spin
November 26, 2013 at 1:04 AM“Kosho bosho” and “mansho”…LOL! I love kosha Mangsho but never tried ghee on it. Gotta try it next time. Thanks for the tips.
[email protected]
November 26, 2013 at 1:37 PMI love anything spicy and curry! We have our own version of this here in the Philippines called Goat Caldereta.
Ash- foodfashionpart
November 26, 2013 at 7:19 PMAww, such a sweet story. He sure loves the curry.
The curry looks absolutely good. We make something very similar to this but it sounds so exotic here.
Have a great Thanksgiving.
Manju @ Manju'sEatin
November 27, 2013 at 2:05 PMI bet the highlight is more on Kosho bosho here than the actual name of the dish 🙂 hihi… I love all these Begali dishes, just like our Kerala dishes, they are so unique and different in its own way. And your sundays sounded like my Fridays (I grew up in the gulf where Thursday-Friday was equal to Sat-Sun) 🙂 Where did weekends like that go now. I feel my sundays now are more crowded than my weekdays.. *sigh*
nipponnin
November 29, 2013 at 8:22 PMHa ha ha! Your husband sounds so cute! I’m repeating myself many times but I really love your photo style. Great recipe.
Medha
November 30, 2013 at 2:05 PMI just want to drop a line and let you know that I made your Murg Dhansak yesterday for dinner! It came out so delicious and full of flavour – I even pass the recipe to my mother-in-law, who is really fond of chicken. We had again for lunch today! Great recipe!
easyfoodsmith
December 2, 2013 at 3:39 AMKosha Mangsho looks absolutely scrumptious and my family being a meat lover is going to lap up this curry.
dixya
December 2, 2013 at 10:41 AMi love goat curries and always looking for new variation.
jehanne
December 2, 2013 at 6:22 PMI must try this, as I hardly have any good mutton curry up my sleeve! Love the story-that’s just like my non-Malyasian hubby trying to speak Malay!
Kitchen Belleicious
December 4, 2013 at 5:35 AMit looks fantastic! Love the goat curries
Meeta
December 9, 2013 at 5:18 AMMutton is not always top of my list but I do adore lamb … however the blend in this curry sounds great. I doubt my husband remembers half of the name of the Indian dishes I make up. A lot of guesswork goes into it on my part LOL!
Radhika Vasanth
December 13, 2013 at 9:09 PMOh my Mom expects the same out of my husband that he will learn sourashtra some day. In the last (almost) 6 years he hasn’t learned anything but handful of words with a heavy slang. But it does sound cute when he tries to speak. Btw, did I tell you that you have got me craving for this mutton curry now.
Vishnu. B
December 25, 2013 at 4:48 AMThis is one of the best things i have gone through in the near future. the way you presented this story is superb.. thank you for such a nice recipe… Also thank u for sharing such a nice moment of your life with your readers..
Kousik
August 23, 2018 at 1:50 PMNice one…. I will try it with chicken as mutton is not my favorite one….
angiesrecipes
August 23, 2018 at 9:11 PMSo very flavourful and yummy! I don’t eat lamb, but I guess other meat will work too.
Bri
August 28, 2018 at 10:47 AMThis recipe looks fabulous.
Question: is it 6 or 7 green cardamoms… or maybe a total of 13. 6 green cardamoms and 7 green cardamoms are listed in the same recipe.
Anindya Sundar Basu
August 28, 2018 at 8:13 PMI love the part where your father used to cook this, I can connect as I prefer cooking this myself and Madhushree helps me with the prep. I have a disconnect too in using coriander powder and turmeric powder but each of us have our own way of making it so its okay. Will look forwad to tasting it.