Many flavours of keema

Rahul Verma

A friend of mine — alas, no more — was a great cook. He shared a recipe with me that has been a resounding success every time I’ve tried it out. This is a keema dish that he had learnt from his barefoot-artist father. You cook keema the way you want it, and then, once done, place it in a paraat or a shallow bowl. Spread chopped green garlic shoots over it. Make a series of little holes in the keema. Break one raw egg into each of the holes. Over this, pour sizzling hot ghee, drizzling it all over the green garlic shoots. Now cover the bowl/paraat with a lid so that the egg cooks. When you take off the lid, you are greeted by a delicious aroma and the mouth-watering sight of keema and leshun greens.

Keema — and the wonders that you can create with it — came to my mind last week when another dear friend came over with mutton koftas. It was so good that I asked her for the recipe.

Sehba said she first got the meat minced with green coriander leaves, green chillies, ginger-onion paste, salt, poppy seeds and roasted chickpeas. This mix was then shaped into small balls. The gravy was cooked with ginger, garlic, coriander powder, red chilli powder and whole garam masalas. To this, some fried onions were added, followed by some curd and water. When it started boiling, the koftas were carefully placed in it. The koftas shouldn’t be jostling for space; make sure the utensil is large enough for all the koftas, the admirable cook says.

I am, as you can tell, very fond of keema. One of the reasons for that is the fact that it can be cooked in different ways. You have the usual keema matar, of course, and keema kaleji — both much-loved dishes. But there is so much else you can do with it. The English shepherd’s pie is a great minced meat dish, as is Italy’s spaghetti bolognaise. Chili con carne — essentially rajma and keema — is another favourite of mine. Anglo-Indian cuisine has a wide variety of minced meat dishes — from mutton cutlets and croquettes to pancakes filled with keema and potato chops with minced meat fillings.

Keema is not just a dish. It is often used to thicken and flavour gravies, too. In Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar, you get the best rara meat — a dish in which the gravy is prepared with minced meat. Mirchi keema is a delightful dish, too. A man in Kasab Pura, near Delhi’s Rohtak road, used to cook a kilo of meat with half a kilo of green chillies. It was out of this world, but you needed a full box of tissue paper when you had this sinus-clearing dish.

Sehba makes a mean safed keema, too — cooked with no tomatoes or turmeric, but with curd. You can prepare keema with various kinds of vegetables, too — from turnip to potatoes.

But when I think of keema, I first picture shami kebabs, one of the best keema dishes that you can get. I still remember, some 60 years after I had my first taste of it, the juicy kebabs that my father’s friend, Bundu Mian, had prepared for us.

I don’t think I have a future as a scriptwriter for Hindi films but there is one line — taking off from a popular film dialogue — that I think I can patent. Remember those iconic lines, ‘I have a car, a bungalow and money. What do you have?’ the successful brother asks his poor sibling. ‘Mere paas maa hai,’ the brother replies. I would have said, ‘Mere paas keema hai.’ 

Potato chops with minced meat filling

Ingredients

Potatoes 750g

Goat meat (minced) 250g

Minced onion 1 tbsp

Ginger-garlic paste 1 tbsp

Garam masala 1 tsp

Green chillies (chopped) 4

Eggs 3

Red chilli powder ½ tsp

Turmeric powder A pinch

Breadcrumbs As needed

Ghee/oil As needed

Method

Boil and mash the potatoes with a bit of salt. Keep it aside. Heat oil in a kadahi. Fry the onions, and then the ginger-garlic paste. Add garam masala, turmeric and red chilli powders. Add the green chillies. Stir and cook the keema, adding a bit of water every now and then. When done, switch off the heat, and let the keema cool a bit. Mould the mashed potatoes into 10-12 balls. Make a hollow in each ball, and fill it up with minced meat. Close the edges of the potato ball, flattening it like an egg. Now, in a bowl, whisk two or three eggs. Dip the potato-minced-meat chops in the egg, and then crumb them. Shallow fry, turning the sides. Serve hot.