Friday, May 11, 2007

keema ala tm

Last time I tried making keema curry it was okay but not how I had envisioned it would taste. I posted the recipe that I used here. I then e-mailed my friend, TM for her recipe. (Thank you!) She is an expat living in Tokyo. She happened upon my blog awhile back and we've been e-mail friends ever since.

Yesterday after the rain subsided, the winds picked up and brrr it is a bit nippy today. I wanted something warm for dinner tonight, so I decided to make curry and to try her recipe.

Now, I grew up eating the frozen type, and never actually had to take them out of the pods, nor have I ever bought them in the pods. But, as I was looking at her recipe and reading up in my Japanese cookbooks, I realized peas are in-season.

So, I looked up peas in the dictionary and they are called endo mame . Then I was off to the market to buy my ingredients. Another bonus beside being pea season was that the market I go to had a 10% coupon off all veggies for today!

I bought my peas and removed them from the pods (is there something you can make using just the pods? I thought it a bit wasteful to throw out) then proceeded to make the curry.

Here is her recipe, there aren't any measurements, so I'll give you my notes at the end.

Keema curry by TM

onion
minced beef
garlic
ginger
spices
tomatoes
cilantro
lemon

1. Saute 1 thinly sliced onion in oil until golden/light brown/red--caramelized basically, and crispy

2. Add minced mutton or minced beef, and saute with crushed garlic (5-6 cloves) and same amount of ginger.

3. When meat is browned, add spices: ground coriander, ground cumin, salt, tumeric, red chili powder, and either garam masala powder, or preferably whole cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and black peppercorns. You can also add green peas and potatoes if you are using, at this time.

4. When you can smell the spices cooking, add 1-2 tomatoes--diced or crushed. Tomatoes should be the same amount as the onion.

5. Let simmer covered until the tomatoes blend in with the meat and spices and make a curry. Saute on high until properly cooked. Then you can add a bit of water if you want a wet curry, and let simmer for about 10 minutes until incorporated, or leave as is if you want a dry-ish curry.

6. If you can find it, finely mince fresh green coriander/cilantro leaves and sprinkle on before serving. You can also add a squeeze of lemon juice at this too, if you like, just before serving.

NOTES: I used about 1/2 teaspoon of each spice and 1 can of whole tomatoes. I then added some water so that the potato and peas would cook. And cooked it for about 20 minutes. I didn't squeeze the lemon at the end. It tasted great, still not the flavor that I envisioned but still good. I guess I'll have to figure out what spices I need to come up with the flavor that I'm looking for.

Have a great weekend!

7 comments:

  1. Sorry Kat, about the only thing that I do with pea pods is throw them into the compost heap. I know, it's a shame to throw them away because I feel the same way with the fava beans!

    Anyway, this looks just perfect to warm up a cold dreary day. Have a great weekend as well!

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  2. i love fresh peas from the pod and your dish looks lovely. i might try to make that soon. btw, your recent posts have given me a serious jonesing of manju! thanks! :D -bourgogne

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  3. Thanks Rowena! Hope you have a nice weekend.

    Thanks Bourgogne! I hope you get some manju soon :)

    Take care you two.
    Kat

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  4. Tasty-looking. So tasty-looking....

    Paz (the hungry)

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  5. Hi Kat,

    I'm glad to see you tried the recipe, but I'm sorry it didn't have the flavour you envisioned...could you tell us where you tried a similar keema then maybe that would be a clue? btw, I forgot to mention that if you do use Japanese frozen peas, your curry will become very "sweet" because Japanese frozen peas are quite sweet. We like it with fresh peas like you used. Also, I always use fresh tomatoes, not canned, so I'm not sure if that might have effected the taste-because of sweetness also. Fresh tomatoes tend to be a bit tart which balancess the sweetness from the caramalized onions.. Hope you find what your looking for! But your curry looks great--I want to have it! lol. Oh, also, you can make a curry with the pods, usually you make it with the peas themselves, lol, but if you've already used the peas, maybe you could add a bag of frozen veggies or just green beans or maybe potatoes or something. You just have to string the pods properly, and they are good to go! :)

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  6. hehe your lazy beanie technique reminds me very much of how I eat my unshelled frozen edamames hehe, good ! :)

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  7. Thanks Paz and Melting Wok!

    Thanks TM, the keema I've eaten was at a local cafe, so maybe that one wasn't original like yours is. I think it may have had more cumin in it, it seemed kind of like the meat used in tacos except a curry. Anyway, thanks again for the recipe and for the tip about the pods :)

    Take care and thank you!
    Kat

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