Sali Boti — Parsi Apricot Lamb with Potato Straw (सालि बोटी)

Ingredients

• 1 kg bone-in mutton shoulder or leg, cut into boti pieces, bone in
• 200 g dried whole apricots, Hunza or Iranian variety, soaked 30 minutes in warm water, soaking liquid reserved
• 400 g tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 300 g onions, finely sliced
• 2 tbsp neutral oil
• For the sali
• 400 g floury potatoes, peeled, julienned into fine straws
• 500 ml neutral oil, for deep-frying
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp salt, to taste

Method

1. 1
   Soak the dried apricots in warm water for 30 minutes and reserve the soaking liquid in full, so that the fruit-scented liquid can later balance the richness of the braising sauce rather than being lost. In a heavy-based pan, warm 2 tbsp oil over medium heat, add the sliced onions, and cook, stirring regularly, until they are deep golden and beginning to catch at the edges — that colour signals that enough sweetness has been drawn out to support the sauce base.
2. 2
   Add the ground cumin, coriander, turmeric, and red chilli powder to the onions and stir for one minute so the spices toast in the oil and open up their fragrance rather than tasting raw in the finished dish. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook over medium heat, stirring and pressing, until the mixture has reduced to a thick, dry paste that pulls cleanly from the sides of the pan and no standing tomato water remains — this is where the dish lives or dies, because insufficient reduction produces a thin, waterlogged sauce that will not carry the apricot sweetness in balance.
3. 3
   Add the bone-in mutton pieces to the paste and turn each piece to coat it thoroughly, so the spiced paste clings to the meat and seasons it from the outside in during the braise. Cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, searing the meat against the paste until the exterior of each piece has lost its raw colour.
4. 4
   Add the soaked apricots and all of their soaking liquid, then add the salt, stir to combine, reduce the heat to low, and cover the pan so the steam is held inside and the mutton steams and braises together rather than drying out at the surface. Braise until the mutton is tender at the bone and the sauce has reduced to a moderately thick, glossy consistency that coats the back of a spoon — the sheen tells you the gelatin from the bone has come into the sauce.
5. 5
   Taste the finished sauce: it should sit at the midpoint of sweet and sour, with neither dimension dominant. Adjust with a small measure of the reserved apricot soaking liquid to lift sweetness, or with additional tomato to sharpen acidity, then simmer briefly so the adjustment is absorbed and the sauce reads as a single note rather than two competing ones.
6. 6
   Parboil the potato julienne in salted water for 90 seconds, then drain and dry thoroughly on a clean cloth so that surface moisture does not cause the oil to spit and so the straws fry to a dry, snapping crispness rather than steaming soft in the pan. Heat the 500 ml frying oil until very hot, fry the potato straws in small batches until crisp and golden — they should snap cleanly when bent — then drain on absorbent paper and hold uncovered so they stay dry.
7. 7
   Transfer the braised boti to a serving dish. Pile the sali over the meat at the last moment before the dish reaches the table, not while still in the kitchen, so the straws stay above the sauce rather than drawing its moisture and softening.