Lamb Keema Curry

Paige was home for Uni this weekend. I got a marvellous deal on lambs mince at our local farm shop. They wanted to make space and offered me 4 X 500g packs for £10! I nearly snapped the butchers hand off.

So I just had to make Paige's favourites, Lamb Keema also known as Keema Aloo although she actually has hundreds of favourites. Now I am blogging some of them so she can have the recipes. Watch out for Lamb Plait next.

I learnt about Indian cooking from an Indian family and also am lucky enough to have a few Pakistani friends who share tips. 

Where to buy the ingredients is possibly the best tip, I have a regular Asian grocery shop I now go to.The spices are a quarter of the price than most supermarkets. Bunches of coriander for literally pence. I wander for ages as there are just so many spices and seeds to try. They also have a freezer section.

Perhaps my fave find are Aarman garlic and ginger and chillies. A 80p for 20 big cubes of frozen spice.

I will always use fresh first but often cannot get out anymore so like  to have pastes and jarred products. But frozen is a closer fit.

Now with the frozen cubes I have near fresh  and none of the smelly fingers from garlic.

Lamb Keema is easy curry  for a beginner, its basically a mince and potato curry, peas for colour, its like a curried shepherds pie and after talking to my friends on Facebook, I am going to try that next, also considering popping it into pastry to make pasties.

I am giving you the milder version as then you can enjoy the flavours and then increase the spice if like us you prefer it. I actually added some 'Just Add' Chilli  near the end as it was a little mild.

Ingredients

1 tbsp  sunflower oil

 1 and 1 1/2  onions chopped

 1 frozen garlic and ginger cube 

1 green chilli cube

(Or 2 garlic cloves and 1 inch of fresh ginger and two green chillies or  1-2 tsps chilli powder)

2 tomatoes

Salt to taste

 1/2  tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

 2 tsp ground coriander

 1 tsp garam masala

2 tbs tomato puree

 500g lambs mince

 3 medium potatoes cut into small chunks.

 A handful of peas

Half a mug of water.

Method.

Heat oil in a large saucepan or saute pan.

Fry the onions until golden.

Add chilli, ginger and garlic

Cook for  1-2 minutes, the smell is divine!

Add chopped wedges of tomatoes

1/2 cup of water, salt if using and all the spices. Fry together for a minute or two.

Add tomato puree and cook for about 5 minutes. I add water if sticking.

Add in the lambs mince, fry until brown all over.

Add the chopped potatoes and peas,  a little water then cover and cook for 30 -40  minutes

Add more water to prevent from drying out.

Serve with naans or rice.