Haryali Keema Mattar (Ground Meat with Peas and Mint)
I came up with this recipe over a few days of pondering how to make keema a bit different than usual. Keema Mattar is a very common dish in North Indian and Pakistani restaurants. Since I will be teaching this dish at the adult school, my goal was to make it easy but flavorful at the same time. The last time I made keema, I cooked it with cauliflower and used a lot of dry spices to flavor the dish. I decided to use fresh herbs instead and made a paste out of onion, ginger, garlic, cilantro and mint. The mixture is sauteed with cumin seeds and finished with some more fresh cilantro. The dish has a very aromatic flavor of cilantro and mint in the background. The sweetness of the green peas goes really well with the savory ground meat. This mixture can also be used as a sandwich filling as well as a pizza topping. The fresh flavor of all the green herbs and peas makes me want to go out in my garden and start planting herbs for the summer! Another few weeks and I will be busy outside tending to my garden and coming up with recipes that don’t take a lot of cooking and effort!
- 1 pound ground pork (dark meat turkey can be used as well)
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 medium white onion
- 4 cloves garlic cloves
- 3-4 inches piece of ginger
- ½ cup fresh mint
- 1 cup cilantro
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Salt to taste
- ½ cup cilantro for garnish
In a deep pan, heat the oil and add the cumin seeds.
In the meantime, mince the onion, garlic, ginger, mint and cilantro in a processor. Once the spices begin to sizzle, add the processed onion mixture. Saute on moderate heat, stirring constantly until the moisture begins to evaporate. Add the ground meat crushing it down with a wooden spoon to separate and cook. Saute the meat for five minutes on medium high heat. Add coriander powder, garam masala, cayenne pepper and salt. Place the lid cook on medium heat covered about 20 minutes. Take the lid off add the frozen peas and turn the heat to high and sauté the mixture till the moisture has evaporated, about 7 to 8 minutes. Adjust seasoning, and sprinkle cilantro before serving.
