Mutton Paya Khudi – Goat Trotters Curry

How to make mutton paya curry? How to make goat trotter khudi curry? What is the recipe for the East Indian paya curry? Those are the questions that brought you here, aren’t they?

My mom uses the same recipe that she uses for the goat tripe curry to make a gluten free paya khudi curry. It’s a bit different from the mutton khudi curry that we eat. But it’s pretty straightforward. A bit tedious, but straightforward.

Wait, hold up! What is mutton paya? If you’re not from around here, let me tell you that paya is the Indian word for the goats’ legs or trotters. So what exactly is the paya khudi curry? Well, naturally, it’s a mouthwatering curry of goat trotters with a lot of coconut that everyone relishes. The same recipe works for lamb trotters too!

What do you put in the Mutton Paya Curry?

Here’s a summary of the ingredients my mom uses for the goat or lamb trotters curry:
12 goat trotters (cut into 3 or 4 pieces each)
1/4 copra or dried coconut
3 large red onions
2 green chillies
1 pod of garlic
A large piece of ginger
3 tbsps of oil or ghee
2 tbsp of bottle masala (traditional East Indian masala)
Salt to taste
Half kg chowlee or black-eyed beans – Optional

What if you can’t find the East Indian bottle masala in stores in your country?
You won’t find it in stores, but you can buy this homemade masala from any of the sellers on this list. Or you can Whatsapp Jevayla Ye at +919175191561 (No email, no website) and order using discount code Fugyeah10 for orders above 1 kg.

How to clean Mutton Paya?

Now, we buy the goat trotters from the butcher after they have already cleaned them. So basically the goat’s hair has already been burned off by the butcher and they’ve already removed all the inedible burnt tissue.

But if there is any stray burnt hair or tissue left, just scrape it off with a knife. Now, who knows where your goat or lamb has been before it reached the hands of the butcher. If one actually thought about it, we might not eat trotters ever again. But thankfully, we don’t think about it. And we belong to a community that eats everything offal – corned tongue, roast tongue, tripe, brains, and more. Okay, just joking.

Anyways, back to our mutton trotters. Once you get them from the butchers, you can always clean them again. Put them in a vessel with water and about 50 grams of baking soda and leave aside for about half an hour. After that, use a scrubpad and rice flour on the trotters and it will be easier to remove all the grime. Pass through water a few times, and they’ll be good to go!

Of course, if you live in a Western country, your trotters might be perfectly clean when you buy them itself!

How to cook the Goat Mutton Paya Curry?

The day before, soak some black-eyed beans in water overnight. You can add them to the curry later when I tell you. It’s something my mom does. But you don’t have to. It’s an optional step.

Start by cooking the paya in a pressure cooker for about 30 minutes till the bones are soft and tender. Remember, you don’t have to cook it for long, but you have to cook it at a higher temperature.

While the paya is cooking, you can get your onions chopped and masala ingredients ready. Once the paya is ready, just leave it aside.

If you’re adding the black eyed beans like we do, pressure cook them for about 3 minutes and then leave aside.

Chargrill your onions over an open flame till they get black and muchly on the outside. This adds a nice flavor to the curry. While you’re doing this, slit the chillies and chargrill them a bit as well. Do the same thing with the kopra or dried coconut. Now chop the kopra and chillies, and half the onions roughly into bits. The other half of the onions, cut into strips and leave aside.

Next step is to grind your garlic, ginger, onions, dried coconut and chillies in a mixer-grinder till it forms a coarse paste. Once upon a time, we used mortar and pestle for this. But nowadays, who’s got time?

Put the ghee or oil in the cooker and fry the paste that you ground earlier for 5 minutes. Then add in the chopped onions and the bottle masala and cook for 2 more minutes before adding in the paya. The masala gives the paya a rich red color and a heavenly smell.

Lastly add in the paya and boil for 10 more minutes. And add the boiled black eyed beans 2 minutes before you turn the stove off.

And that’s it! The mouth-watering paya khudi or mutton trotter curry is ready to be served with some yummy pav, handbreads, or on plain ‘ol white rice.

Other Recipes To Try

• Mulled alcohol drink
• Peppery Oyster Mushrooms
• Popular soda bread recipes
• Chicken Dish in one pot
• Pancakes for dessert