turai keema recipe with coriander greens and coconut milk

Turai is the ridge gourd that is a summer squash in India. In southern India this gourd is available for a longer duration as there is lesser marked winter over there. Another common gourd in summers is the sponge gourd (nenua or chikni turai) that has a smooth skin and a little different flavour, another gourd that I found recently is called Ramturai which looks a bit stout and is heavier than these tow. We really have a great variety of gourds in India.

I prefer eating loads of gourds during summer as these watery vegetables are good for this season. The simpler way of cooking these gourds is along with sliced onions or radish slices or with some fried and crushed badiyan. These gourds are cooked with either chana daal or kala chana too and many people have written to me that these are their favourite summer subzis. I think kids don't care for such mushy curries but adults somehow start loving them. The body tells them what feels good and not just the palate.

I sometimes cook ridge gourds with mutton keema (minced mutton), we call it turai keema to have with chapati for our dinner. And I keep changing the turai keema recipe as per convenience, the vegetarian turai recipes are so diverse we love them as they are.

This summer I tried a turai keema with coriander paste and coconut milk added and loved it so much we had it twice last week. One reason is that we both have been traveling a lot and simpler home cooked meals feel comforting. I want to make them more and more simple for the sake of convenience, it works wonders if you know what you like in terms of flavours.

ingredients..
(3 large meal servings with chapatis and one side dish)

ridge gourds 400 gm
mutton keema 200 gm
coriander greens chopped 1 cup
garlic cloves 3
green chillies 2
ginger root grated 1 tsp
pepper corns 1/2 tsp
cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
coconut milk (cream) 100 ml
mustard oil 1 tsp
salt to taste

procedure..

Make a green paste using coriander greens, ginger, garlic, green chillies, pepper corns and cumin seeds. Keep aside.

Peel the ridge gourds, wash and cube them in small pieces.

Heat the mustard oil in a pressure cooker pan and dump the keema in it. Scramble and fry for a couple of minutes to make the keema loose so it doesn't clump together in the curry. Add the green paste and stir fry for a minute.

Add salt and cubed ridge gourds. Mix well, add 2-3 tbsp water and cover the lid of the pressure cooker. Cook till the whistle blows. Let it cool and open the lid.

Pour the coconut milk, simmer for a few minutes to get required consistency. Serve hot with chapatis.

We had it with ragi roti and plain red chilly smoked baingan ka bharta.

The baingan ka bharta is just flame grilled round brinjals mashed along with chopped onions, chopped green chillies and salt. Served with a dash of raw mustard oil this bharta or chokha is a great vegetable dish that can replace a salad. To smoke it with red chilly I just brush one red chilly with mustard oil and burn the chilly over gas flame a little. Then insert the chilly into the mashed chokha and cover for a while. It gets nicely smoked with a chilly whiff.

This turai keema with coriander and coconut milk is very subtle sweetish aromatic dish that one can enjoy even in peak summer. I like it a bit thin but you can adjust consistency as per requirement or choice. You can add more coconut milk or cream and make it a bit rich but we liked it lighter and mellow without much chilly heat.

Let me know if you try this recipe. I might cook this with regular mutton on bone sometime at leisure. Mutton on bone needs longer cooking time and I cook it sparingly these days.

everyday subzi : lobiya wala keema with shrimp paste

Some curries are experimental but become a favourite from the first time they are cooked. This lobiya wala keema is one of those recipes that I cooked on a whim one day and have repeated a few times already. I do cook keema curry with added vegetables quite a lot and many keema recipes on this blog would not disappoint you in this regard but this time I wanted to get some extra flavours and I did a trick.

I added some shrimp paste (home made) to this curry and it took this keema and lobiya curry to another level altogether. I am waiting when to repeat more curries with keema and some or the other vegetables. Of course with added shrimp paste :-)

I make my own shrimp paste and have cooked it earlier with long beans. A freshly made shrimp paste recipe (sambal belacan) is there on the healthfood blog. This time I just made a paste with ginger and garlic and used the whole paste in this curry. I know I will be repeating this way of using dry shrimps for sure.

ingredients
(4 servings with rotis and raita)

chopped lobiya (in 1 cm bits) 250 gm
finely chopped onions 100 gm
mutton keema (mince) 200 gm
fresh tomato paste 100 gm (3/4 cup)
chopped ginger 2 tsp
chopped garlic 2 tsp
turmeric powder 1 tsp
red chilly powder 1 tsp or to taste
everyday curry powder 1 tbsp
special garam masala powder 1/2 tsp
(or a powder of cinnamon, green and black cardamoms and cloves)
dry shrimps 1 tbsp
salt to taste
mustard oil 1-2 tbsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
tejpatta 2

procedure (takes about 40 minutes total)

Make a paste of garlic, ginger and shrimp and keep aside.

Heat oil in a deep thick base kadhai and tip in the cumin seeds and tejpatta. Add the chopped onions and fry till pinkish brown.

Now add the shrimp paste and the chopped lobiya both. Add salt and powdered spices as well and keep stirring to mix well as the mixture cooks and gets aromatic. It takes about 5-7 minutes.

Now add the keema and keep stirring to break the keema and cook till it starts releasing fat.

Add the fresh tomato paste and cook for about 5 minutes more, stirring all the while.

Now add a cup of water and cover the kadhai. Let the curry simmer on low flame for about 25 minutes. Serve hot.

There is no need to garnish this curry with any herbs as the aroma of shrimp paste cooked with the spicy gravy id really something you wouldn't want to mask. But add a few springs of coriander greens if you like. Some chopped green chillies and minced or julienne ginger will be good if you want the curry to be hot, especially if you are having it with khameeri roti.

The flavours are very meaty, very rich umami hints and the lobiya somehow seems to add to the flavours too. I think I would like this keema curry with cauliflower and may be with cabbage as well. I have more dry shrimps as I had ordered loads of ti from Anjali Koli of Annaparabramha. And I intend to use it well.

Let me try and let you know. Or you try and tell me what way you liked it.

achari mirch wala keema | minced meat curry with pickled (stuffed) red chillies

Pickled red chillies is a favourite with many UP wallahs and we like it with daal chawal, with parathas and with just anything we are eating. Recently a dear friend loved it with her curd rice and then I also tried it that way, only to be charmed all over again by this humble traditional pickle that this laal mirch ka bharva achar is.

This recent tryst with one of my favourite pickles reminded me of a paneer curry I had at Shangri-La Hotel recently, the curry was cooked with a hint of the same red chilly pickle. I had planned to cook the curry with minced meat and now it was impossible to resist the recipe. We both loved this hot keema curry that had chillies of three types making the chilly flavours deep and potent. With a light raita and fluffy khameeri rotis this curry was just out of this world.

I make another keema curry with green chillies and loads of garlic and that one is totally a different thing. That lasun mirch wala keema is a creamy and mild curry with prominent aromas of garlic and chillies but this achari mirch wala keema is hot and robust. Using ghee for cooking makes it tastier as flavours are well rounded up with a bit of fat. I used just a tbsp of ghee but even that makes a good difference.

ingredients..
(serves 2-3)
mutton mince (keema) 300 gm
finely diced onions 1/2 cup
chopped garlic 2 tbsp
broken dry red chillies (choose hot or mild, or skip if you can;t handle too hot) 2-3
minced ginger 1 tbsp
everyday curry powder 2 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
ghee 1 tbsp
salt to taste (3/4 tsp)
fresh red chillies (pickling variety) 2
hung curd 2 tbsp
bharva mirch ka achar 1 inch piece

procedure

Heat the ghee in a pan (kadhai) and tip in the chopped ginger and garlic. Fry these till they get aromatic and then add the chopped onion, fry them too till they are pinkish brown.

Add the spice powders and mix them well. Add the mutton mince (the keema), salt and stir fry till the keema gets almost cooked. It takes about 10-12 minutes.

Half length wise, deseed and slice the fresh red chillies and add to the cooking mixture. Add the hung curd and mix well. Bhuno (stir fry) till the mixture gets almost dry, it takes about 5 minutes.

Add 1/2 cup of water, cover and simmer the curry for 5 minutes. Adjust consistency by adding a little more water of required, check seasoning and serve hot.

It doesn't need any garnish but you can use slivered bell peppers if you wish. Even chopped coriander greens are not required but you can add them for another dimension in flavours.

You can add a little magaz paste (melon seeds paste) to this curry if you want it a bit creamy and the heat milder. Magaz paste also increases the volume of the curry so much so that an added 2-3 tbsp of magaz paste will result in an extra cup of the curry with same ingredients.

You might like to have a squirt of lime juice if you are not having any raita with this curry. Otherwise this curry just needs a good fluffy khameeri roti or a soft roomali roti and a light cucumber raita or may be a raw tomato salsa type salad.

Lasun mirch wala keema | a mutton mince curry with chilly and garlic

Lasun mirch wala keema is not as intensely garlicky or intensely hot as the name suggests. So relax. This a creamy curry with pleasant notes of garlic and green chilly peppers where you get sweeter taste of chillies more than the heat. This mutton mince curry with loads of garlic and green chillies is soul satisfying type of food if you believe me. It replaces our soup dinners in winters many times and we fall for kadak mixed grains roti with it, although we eat more of the curry and less roti, the curry is so addictive good.

Green chillies come in all shapes and sizes, with different heat levels and we use them for differently in our food. We are spoiled for the chilly peppers varieties now a days, Jalapenos, Anaheim, Serrano, Poblanos and Cayenne are some of the varieties visible in the markets. I usually get a small bag of all of them and keep using them to make pickles, stuffed chillies etc. But I mostly like them to be used in my soups or stir fries depending on how hot they are and how much flavour they pack for the recipe. So when I need the rich chilly flavours and lesser heat I use the Anahiem or Jalapenos or a mix of these two.

Go for the larger and wider chillies if you want the sweet flavours of chillies in your recipes, especially if you live in India and the chillies are not labeled by their names in the local markets.

This lasun mirch wala keema recipe I was planning to cook this winter and yet something or the other kept distracting me from this keema recipe. I make a nice mirchi gosht too but this lasun mirch wala keema is a totally different bouquet of flavours. Just a few spices are used and a nut paste makes this dish a rich meal without many side dishes. You wont need much when this lasum mirch wala keema is in the menu.

ingredients
(2-4 servings depending on side dishes)

keema (mutton mince) 300 gm
garlic cloves 50 gm
mild variety of green chillies 80-100 gm
melon seeds 50 gm
cashew nuts 20 gm
whole coriander seeds 1 tsp
cinnamon stick 1 inch piece
green cardamoms 2
chopped coriander greens and stems 100 gm
ghee 1 tbsp or 15 gm
salt to taste ; 1 tsp will be good enough

procedure

Soak the melon seeds and cashews in hot water for 10 minutes and make a fine paste. Keep aside.

Mince the garlic and slice the green chillies. Keep aside.

Heat ghee in a thick base pan, preferably a handi and tip in the whole spices in it. Wait till the spices get lightly aromatic, taking care not to brown them. Add the minced garlic and sliced chillies at once and keep stirring till it all looks translucent. Do not brown the garlic or chillies, we want them to be just a bit translucent.

Add the keema and the chopped stems of coriander greens. Save the chopped coriander leaves to be added in the last phase of finishing the dish. Stir fry for a minute and add 2 cups of water, bring to a soft boil and then simmer for about half an hour, preferably covered but take care not to let it spill.

Add the nut paste and coriander leaves. Adjust the gravy consistency by adding some water if required, or simmer without the lid to reduce if you feel like.

Simmer again after adding the nut paste till the fats float on the surface. This is the time the dish is ready. Serve hot with any Indian style bread, roti or naan.

We generally don't need any accompaniments with this lasun mirch wala keema. It is an indulgence to be enjoyed in singularity.

alu dum with chicken keema | keema alu dum..

Winter potatoes are something we relish for the texture and taste they have. The best time to make potato salads and alu paratha is her now. Arvind loves potatoes in all it's forms, it's me who keeps stuffing our plates with all possible kinds of greens. Not that potatoes are bad for us but hey do not let us eat other seasonal bounties of nature. Potatoes should be enjoyed only in winters in my opinion, no I am not forcing you to follow it :-)

The fact is, the new potatoes of winters are the best suited in Alu methi that I normally make like Kela methi, Alu saag and so many other winter subzis like alu sem and alu gobi. A bengali style Alur dom (aloo dum) is a favorite too and goes well with the motorshuttir kachuri (green peas kachori).

I make a keema wala gobi musallam too. It is a much loved recipe in my home.This keema aloo dum is another way to enjoy the wonderful taste and texture of winter potatoes with a spicy meat mince gravy. Very much a winter dinner when accompanied with hot chapatis.

ingredients...
boiled, cooled and peeled baby potatoes 12 (halved)
chicken mince 250 gm
chopped coriander greens 1/2 cup
mustard oil 2 tbsp + 2 tbsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
salt to taste

to make a rough paste..
roughly chopped onion 1/4 cup
5 cloves of garlic
2 inch piece of ginger chopped


to make a smooth paste..
coriander seeds 1 tbsp
cumin seeds 2 tsp
black pepper corns 1 tsp
black cardamom 1
green cardamom 1
cinnamon stick broken 1 inch piece
cloves 3-4
scissor cut tejpatta 2
dry red chilies 3-4 or to taste
turmeric powder 1tsp

to make another rough paste ...
2 large tomatoes chopped roughly

procedure...

Heat the oil and tip in the cumin seeds and wait till they crackle. Slide in the halved potatoes, sprinkle a little salt, just for the potatoes, and stir fry them on medium heat. The potatoes being used should be boiled and cooled down as mentioned in the ingredients list, as these will be cooked for a long time, along with the mince meat too, and you don't want them to disintegrate. If you use them hot or warm, they would start breaking in this step itself. So be careful about this.

Low flame, added salt and frequent turning will ensure slow frying of the potato halves in a less quantity of oil.

While you stir fry the potatoes, making them golden brown from almost all sides, make the first paste.

Drain the fried potatoes from the oil and keep aside. Add the remaining oil into the same pan and pour the first paste into the hot oil. Add salt to taste and keep stirring till the paste starts getting pinkish. Make the second paste meanwhile and add at this stage. Now is the time to bhuno the mixture on medium flame by scraping the pan and mixing the masala various times. The masala paste gets brown in color, aromatic and shining in appearance when it is ready.

Now is the time to add the chicken mince (or mutton mince if using) and bhuno again. The mince starts getting white and cooked. Let it cook for about 5 minutes, stirring all this while  make the tomato paste alongside and add in the last. Bhuno again for about 45 minutes and add 2 cups of water and the fried potatoes.

Simmer on low flame, covered for about 20 minutes or till the desired consistency is reached.

Add the chopped coriander to finish and serve hot with hot chapatis or naan.

A deep spicy flavor with warmth of mustard oil, perfect winter baby potatoes and some mince is all one needs after a day's work. Coriander greens make it really refreshing.

Haleem : a nourishing meal that tickles the taste buds ...

Haleem is a dish of Arabic origin, popular in many parts of India in it's different avatars. In UP it is made more like a chunky porridge and is called Khichra, everything else is blended well but the meat remains in small chunks.

Pakistani, Hyderabadi and Bangladeshi Haleems are all smooth in consistency, so much so that it looks like a thick brown , almost an ugly food. Some people like me, want a little chunkiness and use coarsely ground meat. Others use finely ground (or machine ground in modern times) meat for smoother texture. Flavors remain almost the same though.

You get the taste of the lentils and a mild hint of wheat into it. The fresh herbs Coriander greens and Mint add a nice finishing touch to a deeper flavor of this healthy dish. I find Haleem quite healthy as I don't believe one's body imports Cholesterol from meat or chicken, or even ghee or butter. A carb rich diet is more conducive towards catapulting one's Cholesterol sky high. But that's not the point of discussion here. Haleem is something you cannot overeat. Everything is cooked in a manner hat it soaks up a lot of water and bulks up. Healthy by my definition.

It is a complete meal in itself and probably a main course in most families where it is made and enjoyed regularly. For festive meals it is a part of a starter like they do during Ramjan, the meal starts from a few fruits, dates and then they have Haleem, progressing towards heavier stuff.

I have been making my Haleem loosely based on a Pakistani recipe I saw long back, I have adjusted the ingredients to my taste and cooking procedure to my liking, as I mentioned, a slight chunkiness of chana daal and mutton mince is relished t my place.

ingredients...

1. to be fried.. 
3 onions thinly sliced

2. to be boiled (pressure cooked) together..
broken wheat 1/4 cup
green mung split 1/4 cup
red lentils (masoor daal) 1/4 cup
split chickpeas (chana daal) 1/4 cup
salt to taste
turmeric powder 1 tsp
mutton broth 3.5 cups or more as required (200 gm bony pieces pressure cooked and liquids reserved)

3. to be made into a paste...
ginger 2 inch piece
10 cloves of garlic (Indian ones)
6-8 dry red chillies or to taste
2 tbsp whole coriander seeds
1 tbsp whole cumin seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 green cardamom
1 large black cardamom
8 cloves
2 inch piece cinnamon
a tiny piece of mace
4 pieces of Tejpatta (scissor cut into bits)
1/2 tsp of siyah jeera

to be bhunoed into a large kadhai..
mutton mince 500 gm
ghee 1 cup ( Only half cup will be used actually, some will be drained after frying the onion)
cumin seeds 2 tsp

Garnish..
ginger julienne as much as you want
chopped coriander greens and mint
lime slices and juice

procedure...

Pressure cook the ingredients mentioned under the 2nd list. Till the pressure builds up and then for 5 minutes more.

Make a paste of the ingredients mentioned under 3rd list. I do in a mixie blender so it is better to grind them all dry first so they become a coarse powder. Then ass about 1/2 cup water and blend again for a few seconds. Add more water if required and blend till smooth. Keep aside

Heat the ghee in a large kadhai and fry the onion slices on medium flame till they all turn golden brown and crisp. Drain and keep aside.

Now take out almost half of the ghee from the kadhai and save it for further use in some other dish. Proceed with the 3-4 tbsp ghee in the kadhai.

Heat the ghee and tip in the cumin seeds. Then add the ground masala paste and bhuno till the ghee separates or the masala paste looks shiny and glazed. To reach this stage you need to stir it frequently and scrape the sides of the kadhai as the cooking mixture sticks to it. This allows a nice uniform bhunoeing.

Add the mutton mince and bhuno it on low flame stirring almost all the time. Within 5 minutes the mince would turn brown and almost dry. This is the time when you add the cooked mixture from the pressure cooker into this kadhai. Mix well and cook on low flame. Keep stirring in between as it has a tendency to stick to the bottom and start burning. You might require to add some water in between to get a consistency you like.

If you like your Haleem very smooth you would like to blend the cooked lentil and wheat mixture with a stick blender before adding. I like the specks of chana daal into the finished Haleem so I don't blend the mixture. Other lentils and broken wheat gets completely blended during cooking itself.

Add water/mutton broth in between if required, the consistency should be almost like khichdi or risotto. Add the fried onions after about 20 minutes of cooking and keep stirring. Save a handful of fried onions for garnish. It will take about 45 minutes of boiling to reach a slurry like consistency. That is the time when it is ready to be served.

Serve hot garnished with the ginger julienne, fried onions and coriander and mint greens. Some Lime slices look good and Juiced onto your serving it gives a nice freshness along with the dhaniya pudina adrak garnish.

Some people like a dollop of ghee over it, just like Khichri.

The dish is utterly yummy, slurp it slowly, relishing the taste well. Some fresh greens and onion salad served on the side is awesome. You don't require anything else with it.

Keema waala Samosa : deep fried indulgence...

A plateful of piping hot something is not a particularly inviting idea in this smouldering heat. But just think of someone talking about samosa all over twitter and facebook and the husband has already demanded a keema paratha you would definitely be tempeted to some heat and deep frying.

So a friend was talking about baked samosa that I find awful to be honest because the fat in the shortening of pastry dough would not be any less if you want a crisp pastry on samosa. Why not deep fry it because anyway you have them very occasionally only. And then I decided for a Keema samosa dinner that day. Any such heavy snack becomes a dinner for us always. I had this Khajur Imli ki chutney in the fridge and the Samosa took me about 40 minutes from scratch.

recipe of the keema stuffing....

ingredients...

(for about 20 small samosas)
keema (mutton mince) 250 gm
finely chopped onions 1/2 cup
finely chopped(minced) ginger 1 tbsp
minced garlic 1 tsp
garam masala 1 tsp or to taste*
red chilly powder 1 tsp or to taste
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
salt to taste
ghee 2 tsp
whole cumin 1 tsp

*I used 2 tsp of my everyday curry powder and 1/2 tsp of the special garam masala

procedure...

Heat ghee in a kadai and tip in the cumin seeds.

Wait till the cumin seeds crackle and then throw in the garlic, ginger and then the chopped onion in that order. Fry till pinkish brown, adding salt at this stage would help in hastening the process..

Tip in the powdered spices , mix and then add the mutton mince. Mix and keep stirring. It takes about 15 minutes to get cooked and dry. Cook longer if the keema (mince) is coarse.

Check seasoning, adjust and let it cool.

recipe of the cover pastry...

ingredients...
maida (white flour)200 gm or one cup
ajwain seds 1 tsp
salt to taste
ghee 1.5 tbsp for shortening
ghee for deep frying


procedure...

Mix maida, salt and ajwain seeds.

Rub in the ghee and mix well.

Add water and make a firm dough.


Make 10 portions out of the dough and roll out small discs.

Halve the discs in half moons and make a cone with each semi circle, folding the straight side up.

Then stuff the keema inside , crinkle the edges and seal with pressure. Repeat with all the discs..

My little trick to flash fry the samosa is to microwave a batch of samosas placed on a greased plate first for 2 minutes and then dunk them immediately in hot ghee so they get fried in minimal time and come out as crisp as the street side shops or college canteens.

Did you check out the samose I saw live demo almost daily while in university and tried making them later? 
Those are the real potato stuffing samosa that is a college time favorite of all Indian students I guess.

These keema samosa are more of a specialty of a few places and mostly are made at home because very few people trust the meat at street shops. They are best home made.

The khajoor imli ki chutney was perfect with the spicy heavy stuffing. We had our dinner earlier than normal that day and it was worth having a deep fried indulgence in a hot summer day.

These are small samosa almost the size of Indian limes. The reason I make them small is that I have to fill the pan less for deep frying them. Bigger samosa would need deeper oil/ghee to deep fry. Reusing the ghee is not harmful because of high smoking point and more stable fatty acids but if you are using other cooking oils you must be careful about reusing the oil. Using lesser in the frying pan makes sense.

Smaller samosa are cuter and crisp too.

Do you see that dark and thick khajoor imli ki chutney?

That bowl was licked clean.

We had some samosas as leftovers the next day with tea.

Reheated in MW they were not as crisp as fresh but as tasty. Those who love keema would know how leftovers are guarded with utmost care.

How often do you have such fried goodies as your dinner?

Kashmiri gushtaba recipe..

Some good days make me walk to the market, I get good produce home and make great food for ourselves. Other days I just rely on what I buy weekly. The days I get minced mutton home are the ones when I get to have an easy meal that tastes like heaven. Gushtaba is one dish that comes from heaven. Kashmir, the heaven on earth. And the dish is truly heavenly.

It helps that it gets ready within half an hour, even when I have to work on two burners at a time, it's something anyone can do who knows shaping balls and boiling water. And someone who loves to work with nice aromatic spices, and still doesn't want too spicy food. Got the picture?

A decadent curry with delicate flavors of almost sweetish fennel and green cardamom, just a bit if warm heat from dry ginger and a slight kick from red chilly powder, all flavors melded beautifully in a yogurt and cream based curry..

Can it get any better?

ingredients..
For the meatballs ...
keema (machine ground) 250 gm
ginger minced or pounded 2 tsp
2 green cardamoms pounded and powdered well
2 cloves powdered
1/2 tsp black pepper pounded
2 pinches of salt
mutton stock 3-4 cups

Mix all these together , knead the mutton mince together so everything gets mixed up properly.

For the gravy...
fresh yogurt ( I used from a tub) 200 gm
ghee 2 tsp
one medium sized onion sliced
one fat garlic clove
1 tsp fennel seeds
1-2 tsp dry ginger powder
1/2 tsp special garam masala
black pepper powder 1/2 tsp
red chilly powder 1/2 tsp
salt to taste
heavy cream 3 tbsp ( I used malai)
fresh mint 4-5 leaves or dry mint a pinch

Most people use fennel powder in the yogurt gravy but I prefer grinding whole fennel along with the fried onion. This gives a better flavor as the fennel is freshly ground. Sieving the onion and fennel seeds paste ensures you get a smooth gravy.

procedure...


Using freshly ground keema is the key to a great tasting Gushtaba. Most people like pounding the meat fresh at home. But that is something I can't bring myself to do. So I get my freshly machine ground meat from the market as I said earlier. Just get a few bony pieces too to make the stock.




Boil the bony pieces of mutton in a pressure cooker with 3 cups of water , 2 bay leaves and a small piece of ginger. This will be stock for boiling the meatballs. The stock can be made ahead and even can be used for making soups.

Make oblong balls with the mince meat mix while you have kept a pan of boiling mutton stock on stove. Gently slide the oblong balls into the boiling stock with salt to taste. Let them boil on gentle heat till you do the preparations to make the curry sauce.


The meatballs will be fished out from this boiling stock and the stock will be saved to make a soup for another meal. The same can be used to adjust consistency when the yogurt gravy is cooking. Alternately, you can boil the meatballs in plain water, in that case the meatballs loose some flavor but are still great tasting as the dish is quite mildly spiced.

The meatballs take about 15 minutes to cook in the stock, they get enlarged a bit and the shape gets distorted a bit, but they wouldn't break if you don't thrash them with the ladle. Just be gentle with them.

After the meatballs get boiling, start working on the other burner with another pan. I told you , you have to work on two burners.



Heat the ghee in a pan and fry the sliced onion till pinkish brown, adding salt to minimise the time and effort as there is less ghee. Use more ghee if in a hurry.



Transfer the fried onion slices to the jar of a mixie and make a paste along with a tsp of fennel seeds and a clove of garlic. This paste has to be sieved into the cooking gravy. I do it directly into the pan when required, do it ahead of time if you can't handle it above the pan.

Whisk the yogurt well and sieve it if you have doubts about curdling the yogurt while heating. Mine anyways gets curdles a little so I just whisk it using a hand blender. Add 2 cups of water to the yogurt and whisk again.

Pour the whisked yogurt in a pan and start heating the pan on gentle flame, whisking all the while to prevent or minimise curdling , whatever the case. I work for minimising.

Now add the dry powders and the sieved fried onion paste into the boiling yogurt. Keep whisking while it boils. Add the heavy cream and mix well.


Fish out the cooked meatballs from the boiling stock and tip them gently into the boiling yogurt mix. Cook covered on lowest flame for another 10 minutes , or till he fat droplets are seen on the surface.




Cooking with the yogurt gravy, the meatballs take about 5-7 minutes more. Some people add a little ghee at this stage. You can choose to add that too. I like some more heavy cream added in the last minutes of cooking sometimes. But that is optional.

Add the mint, fresh or dried, and serve hot. It goes really well with soft chapatis or plain boiled rice. A side of fresh garden salad will be a delight to have with it.

This is a food any beginner cook can make. It looks complicated and on the table too it looks like a great effort to put together. But it's a simple dish to rustle up if you have a basic idea of balancing the flavors.

Do you like your meatballs in a more robust spicy gravy?

A keema kofta curry is to come shortly too. My personal favorite is this Gushtaba from Kashmir as the taste of the mutton is not overpowered by the spices added.

The spicier keema kofta curry is a Awadhi version of meatballs, liked by all who love the earthy spicy gravy with a stronger flavor of mutton. More about the Awadhi keema koftas some other time. Very soon though.

Enjoy Kashmiri Gushtaba till then.....

keema wala gobhi musallam...

This keema wala gobhi musallam is a whole head of cauliflower cooked covered with a keema masala dry curry. This recipe can be baked if using a bigger cauliflower or you need many cauliflower heads to serve a gathering. This was a small head and was just enough for two servings so I cooked it in a deep pan so all the steps of cooking can be done in a single utensil and it saves time too. So this is kadai cooked gobi musallam covered with mutton mince(keema). Cauliflower acquires a new dimension of taste in this recipe as the juices from mutton mince get absorbed really well . This is one dish which remains always in demand and doesn't demand much work to be done, although slow cooking is the best way to get a great tasting gobi musallam. Slow cooking will not be a problem if you keep on working on the next steps of the recipe while frying the cauliflower and then working on the side dishes later when it takes it's time on the stove top.

You can always cook broken florets of cauliflowers with the keema masala following the same recipe if you find it difficult to wrap the masala around cauliflower , or to core the cauliflower the way it is done here. The taste of the small florets remains the same if you cook them the same way but a musallam packs in a surprise element. The keema masala covers the cauliflower completely and it doesn't look like a vegetable hiding under  the spicy looking rich masala. It's only when you cut through it like a pie when the cauliflower is revealed...

And don't worry about the oil/fat content of the recipe. The picture is the proof, there is no oil on the plate can you see...

ingredients...
(2 large servings)

mutton mince or keema 200 gm
one medium sized cauliflower (this one was 400 gm)
one large onion (half of it diced finely and half cut in bigger chunks for the paste)
garlic cloves 5-6 fat ones
ginger peeled and diced 1-2 tbsp(to suit your taste)
dry red chillies 3-4 or to taste
every day curry powder 2 tsp
special garam masala 1 tsp
turmeric powder 1 tsp
freshly made tomato paste1/2 cup
salt to taste
mustard oil 3 tbsp or any other oil you use
procedure...

Core the cauliflower as shown in the picture, removing the hard stalk so a cavity is formed through the flower to let it absorb all the flavors.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a deep pan, tip in a tsp of salt in the oil directly to avoid any splattering of oil and fry the cauliflower turning it all the sides to make it brown like this.

Keeping the flame medium low and turning the cauliflower every few minutes is the key to even browning but do not worry if it brown unevenly. Just that it should be browned all around.

Make a paste of the onion,garlic,ginger and red chillies till the cauliflower is frying. After that, pour in the remaining oil into the same kadai and tip in the onion paste. Add salt to taste and keep frying the paste till it looks glazed. If you use more oil it will release the oil when fried, using less oil needs patient frying (bhunoing) of the masala paste.

Now add all the powdered spices and 2 tbsp of water to make them into a paste and bhuno again for a couple of minutes or till the spices get nicely aromatic.

Add the ground meat or keema and keep stirring till it gets cooked , takes about 8-10 minutes on low flame. You can cook it covered after mixing it nicely , but check for the water content to prevent burning in the bottom.

Add the tomato paste, mix and cook for a couple more minutes.

Now, using your spatula, shift all the fried masala paste to one side of the pan and place the fried cauliflower in the center of the pan. And scoop all the masala paste all over the cauliflower to cover it completely.

There will be some watery fluid around the cauliflower due to the tomatoes , add some water if the tomatoes have dried up. Cook covered on very low flame so the cauliflower soaks up all the flavors while cooking together. All the fluids are dried up when cooking is complete. Otherwise cook without lid for a while so it becomes dry.

Transfer carefully to a platter and garnish with onion rings and coriander greens if you wish.

Use a pie spatula to cut through the cauliflower and to serve it . I actually thought there would be some leftovers but the two of us polished it off with plain whole wheat chapatis.

Onion rings are great with a spicy dish like this, although pickled onions or onions rings doused with lime juice will be better if you make the gobi musallam hot and spicy. This recipe made a very mild spicy musallam and the kick provided by the red onions was a great accompaniment to it.

A raita can be served as a side with chapatis and/or rice with it . We like it so much i never make a side dish with it if i am making it just for the two of us. A much repeated recipe during winter months, we eat seasonal vegetables only and eat minimal meats during summer months.

I have another recipe of keema with a summer vegetable which is our favorite too and i make it whenever our plain simple meals of summer need a kick. Stay tuned in for the summer keema special.

This gobi musallam doesn't promise a quick meal but it's worth all the time it takes by slow cooking it for about 30 minutes. You can always make your chapatis, any other kind of breads or rice to go with it on the side as slow cooking gives quite some space to multitask.

How about a slice of a tree vegetable loaded with some meat ? And no , there are no vegetarian versions of this musallam.

Gobi musallam with just the spices is another thing....may be i make that soon take pictures and post it here :-)

After all that version is a childhood favorite while this one is something i improvised...to my taste...and it has won hearts. What about you?

keema matar ... minced meat with green peas...

Who doesn't like keema matar , minced meat and peas curry ... and who doesn't like meat without fuss ...so here you are with an authentic keema matar . The way it is made in UP kitchens ...

This is a recipe of keema matar by some masterchef I once saw on TV many years ago . I was a vegetarian then and learnt this recipe for the husband .... now i like my nonveg food and this recipe has become the one authentic keema matar in my repertoire ... I have cooked this keema matar for a 40 something get together once and it was the most sought after dish that day....and it is so whenever i cook it even now....
 ( make sure you include some of the mutton fat when cooking this keema matar for a large crowd , big quantities turn out more yummy this way and the curry will be rich too )

I nice fragrant bowl of keema matar , is something like a comfort food for many. I like it with a hot and fluffy naan , fresh out of the oven ... or as i make it on my stove top.

I prefer coarse mince for my keema matar so i have to instruct the butcher specially to make it like this. The coarsely minced keema is better for a dry curry and a fine mince will be better for a gravy like curry , the peas almost floating in a dense gravy....so choose the mince the way you want it. The procedure for the curry will be the same.

I use my home made curry powders for this keema matar , and that makes this curry even more flavorful . If you don't use this spice powder , you can use your own spice mixes if they are close to these powders in flavor...

So here is the step wise procedure ....

Heat oil in a thick base kadai , throw in the cumin seeds . Add the chopped onions after the cumin seeds start spluttering ...After the onions become pinkish , add the ginger garlic paste and fry till everything gets cooked but not browned....

 Add the everyday curry masala , turmeric powder and the red chilly powder ... mix well keeping the flame very low at this point as the powders may get burnt otherwise. Sprinkling a little water while frying the masala will be better if it is getting smoky...Let it fry nicely till aromatic .Add salt to taste.

Add the minced meat , mix well and keep stirring and frying on low heat..The meat starts getting brownish first , the small pieces shrink a bit and then everything gets homogeneous while frying . This step takes about 20 minutes of dry frying ( bhuno) on low flame...

 Add the green peas to the cooking mixture and mix .... adjust salt and add some additional black pepper at this step . Add the special garam masala too . addition of black pepper powder and garam masala at later stage of cooking is done because the aroma is preserved better this way .

Add the curds , mix well and bhuno some more till the mixture turns almost dry again. i normally do not need any cover or lid on the kadai as this is cooked on low flame and is stirred almost all the time . Many things can be done while this curry is cooking a s it takes quite a long time to cook , using finely minced keema minimizes time though...do multitasking as you go...



Now is the time to add the green aromatics... the mint...

Mint is crucial to this recipe as it provides a nice earthy flavor to the curry...chopped green chillies also go with the mint ...It will take just a couple of minutes more on the heat.
Cover lastly and let it rest off heat for a few more minutes..


Serve hot with naans or chapatis....buttered or plain...I like it with plain whole wheat naan...home cooked glory...at it's best...

Let me list the ingredients ...for 3- 4 portions....

keema (minced meat) 300 gm
green peas 200 gm
diced onions 1.5 cup
ginger garlic coarsely pounded 2 tbsp
everyday curry powder 1 tbsp
turmeric powder 2 tsp
red chilly powder 2 tsp or to taste
special garam masala powder 1 tsp

black pepper powder 1/2 tsp
fresh curds 1 cup
chopped mint leaves 1/2 cup
chopped green chillies 1 tbsp ( optional)
ghee 2 tbsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp

The keema matar will see you smiling after all the cooking and stirring you did over the stove top....The aroma of mint leaves is great ... i like mint leaves in my biryani too...just do not cook too much after adding the mint if you like it aromatic , otherwise too the flavor is good...

I make the keema matar kaleji too by this same recipe . I just boil the liver pieces in a separate pan with salt and turmeric . When the liver pieces are soft and done and almost dry in the cooking liquid , add them to the cooked keema matar .... i do it with the leftover keema matar sometimes . Cooking the liver pieces with the curry is not advised as the taste changes a lot.....boiling the liver separately allows the flavors of the keema matar stay well and the liver is having it's own burst of taste when you bite into the pieces....

I do not like mutton liver normally , but with keema matar it can be a good treat . Those nuggets of liver in the keema matar are really delectable...

There is one more variation to this keema matar recipe , a vegetarian version of keema matar . Just use boiled and drained soya granules ( nutrela types) instead of keema and you have a nice quick yummy curry...and this one cooks fast.

enjoy....