Methi Keema

It is rather funny that after bouts of complete vegetarianism K and I start craving meat. The longest we have gone without meat is six months. Of course K and I consider fish to be vegetarian….vegetables from the sea ;-) Anyway, yesterday we decided enough is enough and that we have got to eat some lamb. Also I had bacon and sausages at my office Christmas breakfast and that annoyed K because I don’t let him eat bacon and sausages. To appease the guy I decided to get some ground lamb meat and make “methi keema,” which incidentally is his favorite. I love New Jersey because you can get excellent lamb meat here thanks to the desi population. Anyway I am sharing the recipe with you. I am too lazy to take a picture therefore there are no images in this post!

METHI KEEMA (Keema means ground meat and of course methi is fenugreek)

Ingredients:

2 lbs ground goat/ lamb/beef
½ tsp asafetida
1 bunch of fresh fenugreek leaves finely chopped
2 tb sp Kasuri Methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
5 cloves of garlic, 2 inch garlic, ground to a fine paste
5 onions finely chopped
3-4 tsp Garam Masala (I make Garam masala at home and have the recipe at the bottom of this post. You can use the readymade ones from the store. Roasting the spices is very therapeutic for me)
2 tb sp oil
1-2 tomatoes finely chopped
Peas
Turmeric Powder
Red Chili powder

Whole Spices
1 tsp of cloves, 4 bay leaves, 1 tsp of peppercorns

Method
Marinate the ground meat with turmeric (an excellent antiseptic), red chili powder, salt and juice of two lemons. Lemons get rid of that peculiar smell of meat. Set aside for at least half and hour.

Heat oil and add asafetida, when it starts crackling add the whole spices. Add the onions and sauté them until they are transparent. Add the ginger and garlic paste and red chili powder as per your taste. Then add the finely chopped methi leaves. Add the finely chopped tomatoes, peas and the keema. Saute this very well for about ten minutes and then add the garam masala and salt to taste. It takes around 45 minutes to cook meat. When meat is cooked added kasuri methi for that added flavor of fenugreek leaves. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Serve with roti, naan or parathas.

PS: Fenugreek leaves are optional and you can make this dish minus that ingredient as well. The taste does not get compromised.

Garam Masala:

2 tsp of black pepper
2 tsp of Cinnamon
1 tsp of Cloves
1 ½ tsp of Brown Cardamom (4-5)
1 tsp cumin
1 ½ tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp Bay leaves (crushed)
1 tsp Mace
1-2 star anise
Mix the above ingredients, roast them lightly with a drop of oil, and after they cool, grind to make a fine powder.

Among other things:
I am pleased to read that justice has been served in the Jessica Lal murder case. For those who are not from India or weren't living in India, this was a big case in 1999. The late Jessica Lal was a model who was bartending as a favor to the owner, Bina Ramani, who is some socialite in New Delhi. After the bar was closed some guy, who was the son of a politician from the state of Haryana demanded a drink and when it wasn't served, he actually shot the poor woman! This episode sent a chill down everyone's spine. There was a lot of mudslinging with accusations that Ramani was operating a bar in her restaurant without a license and also accusations of tampering of evidence etc. Anyway after seven and a half years of legal battle, the killer has finally been convicted! You can read the article here.