Growing up in a Bengali-Bihari household, mutton has been such a core part of our cuisine. By mutton, I mean goat. Not lamb. (India’s most common ‘mutton’ is goat)
This meat was cooked in various forms – light curry, intense curry, cutlets, mince – you name it. Each of these versions is delicious. It has a deep, dark, meaty taste, tons of flavour from the spices and leaves with you such a sense of satisfaction! I will post more mutton recipes on the blog over time, but am starting off with a version of the mince. Keema (minced mutton) was made at home once in a few weeks. It was made very simply, just with spices, onions, tomatoes and peas (that version will also go up on the blog sometime). Given its texture, it is delicious with chapatis or rice. In fact, I used to love eating it with khichdi! It gave a little extra oomph to the simple meal.
Today’s version is a little amped up version of that keema, and it has my favourite ingredient – Potato! I know you’re not surprised! š
Cooking mutton takes a little bit of patience. You want the meat to be nicely browned, cooked through and delicious. You want the spices to blend in well. And in this case, you want the potatoes to be soft and delicious. So make this over a weekend maybe, for a lazy lunch? I promise it will transport you to a lovely place! You are likely to want to laze and nap after eating this, so make sure you have time š
Keema Aloo
Ingredients
500g keema (minced meat)
1 tsp cumin (jeera) seeds
1 bay leaf
2 tsp fennel (saunf) seeds
1 green chilli split lengthwise
4 cloves
4 cardamom pods
1.5 inch cinnamon (dalchini) stick
1 medium onion – finely diced
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp turmeric (haldi) powder
2 medium tomatoes – finely diced
1 tsp cumin (jeera) powder
1.5 tsp coriander (dhania) powder
3/4 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
3 large/6 medium potatoes – parboiled and cubed
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil
fresh coriander
Directions
- Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add cumin seeds, bay leaf, fennel seeds, cardamon, clove, cinnamon. Once it splutters add the green chillies and cook for 30s.
- Add onion with a pinch of salt. Cook the onions till they are a nice golden brown. Keep stirring to ensure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Add the ginger garlic paste and cook for 1 minute, till the raw smell goes away.
- Put in the mince (keema), the sugar, a pinch of salt and mix well and cook till the meat is browned.
- Add the tomatoes and cook till soft and releasing oil from the sides
- Add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and garam masala. Mix well and cook for about 10 minutes.
- Add the potatoes with 1 tbsp water, mix well and check for seasoning. Cover and cook for 20-30 minutes. Keep stirring every 5-7 minutes so that it doesn’t get stuck to the bottom.
- Once the potatoes are cooked through and meat is nice and tender, it’s ready! Garnish with coriander and serve š
My Tuck Box 
Nice recipe
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