Bhuna Keema with Khara Masala

Bhuna Keema with Khara Masala

Okay, my titles aren't witty like Dave's and my food looks like steaming turds on urice. This is a very tasty dish though. I found the recipe at Recipe Zaar so have a search for it there.

It's pretty easy to make: more or less a "chuck it in the pot and wait" dish. Brown a couple of medium sized onions in a frying pan. Add a cinnamon stick, ten peppercorns, two cardamom pods and eight cloves to the browned onions and fry for one minute. Add six minced garlic cloves and about one and a half inches of ginger, also minced. Fry this for another minute. Then add a teaspoon of cumin seeds and 500g of mince. You can use beef, lamb or whatever really. I used turkey mince because I couldn't find beef mince in Somerfield (they don't stock such niche products as minced cowmeat) and it worked fine. Fry up the meat on a medium heat until it's changed colour. Then add a teaspoon of salt, three whole dried red chilies, stir it and then lower the heat. Cover the pan and let it simmer for about half an hour.

My Glamorous Assistant!

Serve self glass of Leffe or another delicious beer and relax, contented that nothing has gone horribly wrong so far. Don't relax too much though because you should probably put on the rice after the meat's been simmering for about 20 minutes. Melt about 30g of butter in a saucepan, add a cup of basmati rice and coat the rice in the butter. Add a bay leaf, a teaspoon of salt, four cardamom pods and four cloves. Pour one and a half cups of boiling water into the pan and leave it to simmer on the lowest heat for fifteen minutes.

Now, back to the curry. After you've left the meat to simmer for a half hour, remove the cover, crank up the heat and fry it for a minute. Add about half a cup of yogurt to the pan and cook for about two more minutes, keeping it moving. Add about half a cup of ripped-up coriander leaves to the pan and stir well, cover and turn off the heat. You could add some green chilies here if you want to add a bit more of a kick to it but unfortunately I was eating with a spiceophobe.

Whap the rice onto a plate then top it with the curry. This recipe is enough to create two pretty big portions and would probably make enough for three. It looks like steaming nastiness but tastes pretty good. Because the spices are whole, you get pockets of flavour in the dish meaning that every mouthful is slightly different to the one preceding it.

Oishii!