Authentic Sali Boti

This unique dish is a true Parsi Cuisine classic, using cubes (boti) of any meat of choice and Persian touches like apricot, apple cider vinegar and sugar along with a blend of mouth-watering Indian spices and aromatics. It’s best served topped with crisp ‘Salli’ or shoestring potatoes (although a handful of crushed potato chips work well too.)

Ingredients

• 750 grams of mutton/lamb cut in 1 inch cubes ( I used raan of mutton so got 3-4 nice bone pieces which gives very nice flavour).
• 2 tablespoon ginger garlic paste (1 whole garlic & 1 inch ginger, minced together)
• ½ teaspoon each, salt & cracked black pepper
• 2 tablespoons  oil
• 1 tablespoon Ghee
• 2 cups finely chopped onion ( 3 big onions)
• ½ teaspoon ground red chili or Cayenne pepper
• ¾ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ¾ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¾ teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• ½ teaspoon Garam Masala
• 1 ½ teaspoon sugar or 1 teaspoon jaggery
• 1 and ½ cup Tomato Puree
• 3 cups chicken broth or water
• 5 dried apricots (seeds removed and minced with 1 tbsp warm water)
• ½ teaspoon salt (to taste)
• 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons chopped corriander
• Salli or shoestring potatoes or crushed potato chips, as a topping

Directions

• In a bowl, bring the cubes of  meat together with grated ginger and garlic (ginger garlic paste) and salt/pepper. Let the meat marinade refrigerated for at least 2 hours or even overnight, especially if using mutton or lamb.
• Heat oil and ghee together  in a large pan and add the chopped onions. Fry to a light brown on a medium flame.
• Mix the marinated meat into the onions, sauté together till meat is coated with the aromatics (in mom's words: ‘let your nose guide you’.)
• Next, sprinkle the dry spices and jaggery or sugar and sauté for 5-7 minutes. If you feel the spices sticking to the bottom of the pan, add a few tablespoons of broth/water to help it cook.
• Add the tomato puree, apricot puree, salt and 2 cups of chicken broth (you can adjust the broth to the desired consistency of the gravy.) Bring this mixture to a boil and cook covered on medium heat for  1 hour till the broth is absorbed, and the meat and tomatoes are cooked through.
• Taste for salt and add cider vinegar, chopped cilantro to the preparation, simmer for another 3-4 minutes for the flavors to blend together.
• Serve Jardaloo Salli Boti hot, topped with Salli or shoestring potatoes (a handful of crushed potatoes chips will work as a substitute) alongside warm Indian bread like roti-chapati, naan or steaming basmati rice.
• For the Sali: 5 large potatoes, peeled and cut into matchsticks or julienned. Soak Potato Matchsticks in Ice Chill water with 1 tsp of salt for 10 minutes. Remove from water Pat Dry and Let it dry for 10 minutes under fan. Deep Fry it when it’s dry. Salli is ready.