Kochi Pathar Mangshor Jhol | Khasir Mangshor Jhol – a Bengali Mutton Curry recipe

Kochi pathar mangsho jhol or khasir mangshor jhol is a light yet delicious recipe of authentic Bengali mutton curry cooked with large chunks of jumbo potatoes. This red soupy mutton curry called Mangshor jhol (in bengali) with a thick layer of oil on its top, and contains juicy tender mutton pieces with buttery soft potatoes is very close to my heart. Whether making home-style to restaurant style bengali mutton curry, along with Pathar mangsho or khasir mangsho, aloo is must used ingredient with simple kitchen spices. Goes best with piping hot white rice and a wedge of lemon, this soupy curry tastes just wow. 

Mangshor jhol(or mangsher jhol) is basically a simple, light or soupy bengali mutton curry or chicken curry recipe mostly cooked in a pressure cooker with big potato chunks. As in our bengali cuisine, any meat is called mangsho. However, among all those traditional mangsho’r jhol recipes, this light mutton curry(even made with lamb meat too) is most popular in every Bengali home (from West Bengal & Bangladesh). Especially, this tasty mangshor jhol is popular as robibarer bengali style mutton curry too. As Bengali’s robibar or Sunday is just incomplete without this simple soupy mutton curry. So Sunday is the most awaited day to relish this mangsho jhol bhaat (mutton curry with rice) in almost every Bengali household meal. 

Must be thinking What is Kochi Pathar mangsho or khasir mangsho & what’s the difference between them, right? These are completely Bengali terms. Kochi means soft, Patha represents goat and Mangsho depicts meat so in that sense Kochi Pathar Mangsho means soft goat meat contained from a goat not yet matured. That means kochi patha is neither the baby goat nor the adult one.Whereas adult goat is called Khasi, means Khasir Mangsho is matured goat meat (contains little fat).

So when kochi patha’r meat is used for making a soupy mutton curry with potato named kochi pathar jhol in our bengali language. On the other hand, if the mutton curry is cooked with khasi’r meat called khasir mangshor jhol. So the name of this recipe depends on using ofKochi Patha or Khasir Mangsho. However, for making more rich and oily mutton er jhol(curry), rewaji khasi will be the best option. What is rewaji khasi? Rewaji khasi is a special variety of mutton that contains a thick layer of fat on the meat. It is quite similar to lamb meat. Anyway, these all types mutton can be used in making this mangsher jhol recipe.

Kochi Patha is rare to find out in West Bengal (including Kolkata) itself, except a few old mutton shops run by traditionally. Otherwise, Khasir Mangsho is one more option for making this bengali mutton curry recipe. Khasir Mangsho is easily available in and out of West Bengal. Since moving to Bangalore, I mostly make this recipe with Khasir Mangsho(mostly rewazi Khasi or lamb meat), however due to availability nowadays I have started making it with Kochi Patha too. 

Mutton er aloo diye jhol is a nostalgia to the Bengali, especially whoever was born and brought up in West Bengal. It proves not being a fancy mutton recipe, how a simple mutton curry is a favourite to a whole community. My mom used to cook it at home, our whole house was full of its aroma and the taste was awesome. Even almost the same aroma came from our neighbourhood too. Mutton er jhol with gorom bhat just would make our Sunday special.

Today I am going to prepare my mom’s special(though without bata moshlai ranna) patla khasir mangshor jhol aka Bengali soupy mutton curry recipe. In our childhood, bata moshla(masala prepared by grindstone) was used to make all dishes, however, I have to take the help of my mixer grinder. Except for that handmade bata masala and my mom’s touch almost l add up everything for making this recipe. So if you make it at home, I guess you may relate to your mom’s recipes too.

If you are a beginner and searching for a tasty yet easy mutton curry recipe then try this Bengali mutton curry. For your convenience, here I described this recipe with a simple step-by-step description with pictures. Try to make this curry with mutton(without fat) best for your health. Even for more perfection check my tips and trick section too, just below the instructions. Hope that will help you to do it perfectly.

For some other Bengali Mutton recipes, you can try my

Bengali Mutton kosha or kasha mangsho recipe

Mutton keema curry

Golbarir Kosha Mangsho

Kolkata Style Mutton Chaap

Kolkata Mutton Biryani recipe

Mutton liver curry(bengali style)

Railway mutton curry(Bengali style)

Even for other popular mutton recipes, you can try my

North Indian Style Mutton masala,

Kashmiri Pandit Style Mutton Rogan Josh(without onion and garlic),

Mangalorean Style Mutton Ghee Roast,

Hyderabad Style Mutton Chops Fry

Awadhi Style Mutton Kofta Curry recipe. 

Don’t forget to let me know your valuable feedback about this recipe in the comment section below.

Recipe card for Bengali mutton curry recipe

How to make Kochi Pathar Mangshor Jhol (with step-by-step pictures)

Tenderising mutton

• Clean the mutton((kochi patha or khasir mangsho) pieces properly, make sure goat’s fur or hair should not be left behind. Wash it with lukewarm water and drain it well.
• Keep the mutton in a mixing bowl, add 1/2 lemon juice and 3 tbsp of curd. Mix it all together and cover the bowl to tenderise the mutton till the other ingredients are ready.

Making masala

• Take a small masala grinder jar, add garlic, ginger, green chillies and tomato(amount described in the above ingredients section). Make a smooth paste out of this masala. Even while grinding the masala, you may add little water(2-3 tbsp) if required. Keep the masala aside for using it later.

• Then little crush the whole spices(cardamom, cinnamon and cloves) with the help of a grinding stone or mortar pestle. Keep it aside.

Making bengali mutton curry

• For making bengali mutton curry, first, heat a pressure cooker on medium to high flame, and add 1/2 cup of mustard oil(around 125 ml) to it.
• Heat the oil until smoke starts coming out of it. First, add the crushed whole garam masala and bay leaves for tempering in oil.

• Once the aroma of the garam masala starts coming, add the onion(finely sliced) to the pan. Stir it nicely. Let the onion gets soft and contains golden brown colour. Then add the masala paste to the pan, roast the masalas in oil for 1 min.

• Then add red chilli powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric and salt to the pan. Mix it nicely altogether with the masala and roast it well.

• Once the raw smell of masala goes off and after roasting the masala gets a rich brown colour(as shown in the pic) by releasing oil with its sides. Then add the mutton to the cooker and nicely mix it with the masala.

• Cook the mutton for 1-2 mins and then add the aloo or potatoes. Again mix the aloo with mutton and masala. Cook it well. In the meantime, during cooking, mutton and aloo will first release water, that water will mix up with the masala and its gravy. Then we need to cook the mutton and aloo into that gravy. Cook it till the gravy dries up and gets thick by releasing oil.

• Then add hot or lukewarm water to the pressure cooker, and stir it well to make sure mutton, aloo or masala should not stick to the bottom of the pan. let the gravy starts boiling.
• When the gravy completely starts to boil, close the lid of the pressure cooker. Reduce the heat at low mode. Cook it for sharp 10-12 mins on low heat. Then raise the heat to its maximum and wait for two whistle blows. Then immediately turn off the heat. Let the cooker automatically release its pressure.

• Once the pressure cooker automatically releases its pressure, then open its lid. After removing the lid, a red gravy will be visible with a layer of oil on its top containing juicy mutton pieces and buttery soft aloo.  This Bengali-style mutton curry is almost ready just a few steps ahead.

• Again start cooking this jhol on high flame, when the gravy starts to boil then add 1/2 tsp of garam masala powder to it. Gently mix it well with the gravy and boil it to let the gravy absorbs the aroma of garam masala. In the meantime, check the taste of the gravy, if salt is required then add a little salt as per your taste. Mix it well with the gravy and boil the gravy for one more min to make sure salt gets perfectly absorbed in it. Turn off the heat.

• Our most awaited robibar special Pathar Mangshor jhol or khasir mangshor jhol is ready, serve it hot with piping hot rice(gorom bhat) and a wedge of lemon.

Tips and tricks of this Bengali mutton curry recipe

• While making this mutton gravy always add hot or Luke warm water. Normal water(at room temperature) can spoil the taste of the gravy.
• In beginning, the tempering of whole spices in oil is not part of my mom’s recipe. Even except for using whole spices this curry tastes awesome.  So you may skip this step.
• Cooking is always necessary till the masalas raw smell goes off along with the masala start separating oil.
• Here aloo should not be fried before adding into the gravy. As traditionally raw aloo is used in this recipe.
• If you are planning to cook in a pan, then must use a few slices of raw papaya or whole betel nut to make the mutton soft. As raw papaya and beetle nut release enzymes that break the tissue of mutton. This method was used by our grandma while cooking mutton in their kitchen.
• Here I added spices moreover chillies to make it spicy as per my requirement, you may add more or less chilli as per your taste. Even red chilli powder is not required just to make that red coloured gravy. Kashmiri red chilli powder, tomato and curd will help you to get that rich red colour while roasting in oil with other masalas.
• The cooking time of mutton can take less or more, depending on its quality. So if mutton contains almost no fat(probably Kochi Pathar Mangsho), then it should take less time to cook. Whereas mutton comparatively containing little fat(normal Khasir Mangsho) take a little bit more time than the previous one. If it is rewazi Khasi or even lamb meat then it will take some more time to cook.
• Though you may use less oil(as described in this recipe) to make this curry more healthy and light as well.