Keema Pao

1 kg mutton keema/mince (apart from the Indian sub-continent, anything sold as mutton is actually lamb and not goat. So it’s a luxury for these guys when they visit!)

5-6 onions, chopped

½ cup frozen peas

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 tbsp garlic paste

I pack tomato puree (usually 200 gm I think)

1 tsp garam masala

½ tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp haldi (little less than that actually)

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp ghee

2 sticks cinnamon/dalchini

2 black cardamom

4-5 green cardamom

2 whole dried red chilli

1 tsp whole black pepper

2 eggs

Dhania/Coriander

I halved the whole red chillies and crushed up the cardamoms in my mortar & pestle. Then I heated the oil & ghee in my non-stick saucepan. Added the whole spices to the pan and stirred them around on high heat for a moment, until my kitchen was fragrant with the heady scent of frying spices!

I then added the onions and fried/roasted them (on medium heat to avoid burning & sticking) until they were nice and brown. (On retrospect, I should have used 2 more onions for more masala & colour. But I cheated and added a handful of my Mom’s divine fried onions at a later point!)

I then added the ginger and garlic pastes and stirred them around for a minute. Then I added the washed and rinsed keema/mince and stirred it around.

I then added the salt, haldi, red chilli powder, garam masala and mixed it well. (Bear in mind that this was mild as I was also cooking for children. Under normal circumstances, I would have added another ½ tsp each of red chilly powder & garam masala & probably some fresh green chillies too). I roasted it on medium heat until the meat went from a “kaccha” pink to white-ish & then light brown.

I then added the puree, the peas, 2 cups of water and brought it to a boil.

Then I covered and cooked it on the lowest heat setting for 5 hours. Personally, I think that the longer red meat is cooked, the more tender and delicious it is. While this was cooking, I boiled, peeled and quartered 2 eggs. When I was ready to serve, I poured the Keema into the serving bowl, arranged the egg quarters on top and sprinkled it generously with fresh chopped coriander/dhania and a sprinkling of fried onions. Serve with buttered pao (bread).

Afterthought: next time I would add the peas closer to the time of serving to retain the colour. This time it just blended in with the keema.