Hooray for Bollywood: Weeknight Beef Keema

 

What can I say? Food-wise we’ve been – well, not boring exactly, but certainly very routine lately. Lots of fast-and-easy weeknight favorites, lots of (gasp!) repetition, lots of things that one wouldn’t write home about (or read about, for that matter).  

Christmas, though. One of the great things about having a culinary student in the house is that everyone assumes Herself wants cookbooks for Christmas. They assume correctly. She’s amassing quite a nice little collection of cookbooks, particularly niche or one-topic ones that dive a little deeper into a single kind of cuisine. They also tend to inspire some more creative and in-depth cooking – Saturday food project, anyone?

During this year’s post-holiday sale shopping, Anna came across Bollywood Kitchen: Home-Cooked Indian Meals Paired with Unforgettable Bollywood Films. I’m a fan of Bollywood music so I’m really looking forward to following the film recommendations, but our collective imagination was immediately caught by the very first recipe. It claimed to be weeknight-friendly, the sort of thing your Indian-American mom might knock out on the Tuesday night without dirtying up every pan in the house (we’d make Indian a lot more often if we could get away from our habit of making 5 different dishes each time). We thought we’d give it a test run on a typical weeknight: a day when everyone works and John has an extracurricular activity, which makes the timing uncertain and practically guarantees that someone is driving somewhere at the exact time dinner is ready.

It did not disappoint. I was a little surprised that it contains beef, as most of the Indian people I know don’t eat beef (or are vegetarian) but the author chalks this up to American assimilation and says that it’s her mom’s most popular dish. I can see why! We adjusted the spice down a bit to accommodate John, who’s never really been exposed to spicy food and hasn’t developed a taste for it. Highly recommended for a weeknight when you want comfort food that isn’t squishy or bland. Don’t be daunted by the ingredient list; it’s mostly spices that you have on hand, and a little mise en place* will help make sure it all comes together without any stress on your part.

* Translation: measure everything out and have it ready to go before you start cooking. 

Adapted very slightly from Bollywood Kitchen: Home-Cooked IndianMeals Paired with Unforgettable Bollywood Films by Sri Rao.

Weeknight Beef Keema

2 lb ground beef
½ Tbsp turmeric
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 bay leaves
2 medium onions, finely chopped
3 Tbsp garlic paste
2 Tbsp ginger paste
½ Tbsp Indian red chilli powder or cayenne (we used a teaspoon)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cloves (we used ½ tsp)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 medium tomato, finely chopped
2 tsp ground coriander
½ cup chopped cilantro

Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the ground beef and sprinkle with the turmeric. Cook the meat 7-9 minutes, breaking it up as you go. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Wipe the pan clean, then heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the bay leaves and allow them to infuse the oil for about 15 seconds. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until golden brown.

Add the garlic and ginger and cook 1-2 minutes. Add the chilli powder, salt, cloves, and cinnamon and cook for another minute.

Stir in the tomato, then cover and simmer until the tomato has broken down, 5-7 minutes. The sauce should start to come together; the oil will start to separate and the sauce will pull away from the sides of the pan.

Stir the meat into the sauce and cook over medium heat for about 7 minutes. Add the coriander and cook another 15-20 minutes. The meat will look dry at this point.

Remove the bay leaves and add the cilantro. Adjust the salt and seasonings and/or add a squeeze of lemon.  Serve over rice. The recipe claims this is best made a day or two in advance so I’ll let you know if I make this and can resist eating it immediately.