I've always enjoyed a masaledaar kheema with fresh dinner rolls aka Ladi Pav.
After Pav Bhaji, the second best thing that I love devouring my baked bread with- is a good, flavour-packed minced meat cooked at home.
With the lockdown in place owing to Corona, we have been lucky to get all our daily supplies via online orders. And thankfully our ward does not come in the red zone either.
Since it's just me and mom together, wherein we both enjoy cooking varied dishes and not repeating them, cooking together has become a norm for afternoon lunches. All my experiments in the kitchen during these 30days, from cookbooks collected over years together, is finally seeing its way onto my blog here.
Considering its super hot during afternoons, I personally don't enjoy eating a piping hot curry rice combo. And I'm more than happy to have a simple sabzi roti or a spicy meaty combo on my lunch table. So we had bought Chicken mince a while back, waiting to be used instead of lying in that freezer. After scouring a few recipe books from my Indian cookbook collection, this was the result.
Don't be taken aback with the varied use of spice powders, trust me - they all marry together in this lip-smacking dish. Also, most of these spice powders are something which is available in Indian kitchens and isn't exotic, so this shouldn't be a problem either.
One suggestion would be to let this cooked mince sit in your refrigerator overnight so that the mince catches on to the spices really well. Else let it sit for at least an hour prior to serving with phulkas, naan or a simple dal rice combo or even your favourite bread or pav with slices of onion and a lemon wedge. Yummm!!
The trick lies in slow cooking this meat over a medium flame on a non-stick pan with patience and love of course :). The fresh green peas are my personal addition, you can skip it if you do not like them. Also if you do not have that tinned tomato puree, add in plain Kissan/Maggi Tomato ketchup.
INGREDIENTS :
250g - Chicken Kheema
1 large onion - finely chopped
2 medium-size tomatoes - finely chopped
4 green chillies - chopped
5 Garlic pods
1 inch Ginger - chopped
3 tbsp - Fresh Coriander leaves, chopped
1/2 cup - Fresh Green peas
1 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 tbsp - Coriander powder
2 tbsp - Red Chilli powder (adjust as per preference)
1/2 tbsp - Roasted Cumin powder
1 tsp - Garam Masala
4 tbsp - Tomato Ketchup
5 tbsp - Fresh cream
1 tbsp - Kasuri Methi
3 tbsp - unsalted butter
6 tbsp - Oil
Salt to taste
PROCEDURE
1. In a large pan, heat oil - add chopped onion, garlic and ginger. Fry them for about 5 mins on a high flame.
2. Next, add chopped green chillies and continue frying the mixture until the onions change colour.
3. Add in chicken mince, turmeric powder and salt to taste. Cook with continuous stirring until the meat is half done.
4. To the above mixture, add chopped tomatoes and cook till they turn mushy.
5. Once your tomatoes are soft, add the spice powders - red chilli, coriander, garam masala and cumin.
6. Give it a good stir and continue to cook until the raw smell of the spices disappears. Add 1/2 cup water and cook with a closed lid on, low flame for 10minutes.
7. By now your minced meat would have cooked through and all the excess of water would have turned in to a thick spicy gravy. Check for spice/ salt levels and adjust accordingly.
8. Add ketchup, butter and cream - give it a good stir. Let this cook for about 4-5 minutes on a low flame.
9. Garnish with dried Kasuri methi and chopped coriander leaves - put back the lid and let this sit for about 15mins (flame off) prior to serving.
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