Keema Matar

Ingredients

• 700 g lamb mince
• 250 g frozen peas
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 30 g ginger, grated
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 1/2 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 40 g ghee
• a handful of coriander

Method

1. Temper the cumin

   Heat the ghee and add the cumin seeds; wait until they darken a shade and smell toasty, about 30 seconds.

   1 min

2. Brown the onions properly

   Add the onions and cook until genuinely golden brown, not just soft — a good 15 minutes. Then add the ginger, garlic and chillies. Pale onions give a thin, watery keema.

   15 min

3. Brown the mince

   Turn the heat up, add the lamb and break it up, and keep cooking past the point where it turns grey until it is browned and the fat has separated out. Most keema is undercooked at this stage and tastes boiled.

   15 min

4. Spices and tomato

   Stir in the ground coriander, turmeric and chilli powder, then the tomatoes, and cook until the tomatoes collapse and oil pools at the edges. That separation means the masala is done.

   10 min

5. Peas at the end

   Add a splash of water and the frozen peas and cook for five minutes only. Any longer and they lose their colour and their pop.

   5 min

6. Finish

   Stir in the garam masala off the heat with the coriander and check the salt. Garam masala is an aromatic, not a base spice — cooked long it goes dull.