30 Minute Mince
Option one
In June this year, my son joined a university in Melbourne, Australia to do his degree in vet & biosciences. Of course, even though he started the admission process about 8 months before he left home he didn’t bother to even learn the basics of cooking from his mother or me. Back home here in India, the height of his culinary skills was making fried eggs & bacon for himself. For the first two months, he survived on reheated frozen meals and what home-cooked food he could scrounge from his aunt when he visited her on weekends. As his group of friends grew the visits to his aunt reduced in frequency, a couple of months ago while chatting on Skype he asked me to give him a recipe for something simple. The first thing that came to mind was OMG how in hell am I going to teach him to cook on Skype. The first thing I did was give him a list of basic spices and stuff that he needed to have if he wanted to cook for himself and what were the easiest meats to cook. In a couple of days, he came on to Skype and said that he had bought all that I asked him to buy and also ½ a kilo of mince. Necessity being the mother of invention I gave him this recipe. The feedback was that even his Australian friends enjoyed it.
Option two
`Kheema pao’ and pani kum chai If you haven’t heard of it you probably have never eaten in an Irani restaurant in Mumbai. The humble Kheema or Mince is generally made from the leftover parts of the carcass after the best cuts have been taken and is generally the cheapest dish on the menu in a restaurant. People born in the 1950s, ’60s & ’70s swear by their favorite restaurants for `Kheema pao’ from Cafe Mondegar in Colaba and Cafe Excelsior in VT to & Gentleman’s restaurant in Mahim & Lucky’s restaurant in Bandra. (A lot of today’s kids haven’t even heard of places like these because they have McDonald’s, Subway, Dominos, Cafe Coffee Day, et al.). Surprisingly even though Mumbai (or Bombay as it was then called) literally had hundreds of Irani restaurants it was almost impossible to find 2 serving identical kheema dishes. Most non-vegetarians in Mumbai will always have a packet of mince in their freezer since it cooks quickly and can be served in many forms eg. Pies Patties (stuffed puff pastries), Cutlets, bakes etc.
Ingredients:
500 grams mince
250 grams onions
2 teaspoons chili powder (less or more according to taste)
1 teaspoon jeera (cumin) powder
2 teaspoon dhania (coriander) powder
½ teaspoon garam masala powder
¼ teaspoon pepper powder
¼ teaspoon haldi (turmeric) powder
1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
3 tablespoons tomato sauce
¾ teaspoon salt
A pinch of rai (mustard seed)
Chopped kothmir (green coriander leaves/cilantro) to garnish
Method:
Finely chop the onions. Mix all the dry powdered masalas.
In a vessel, heat 3 – 4 tablespoons oil. Add the rai and let it pop. (I use the rai as an indicator of the oil temperature).
Add the onions and sauté till translucent.
Add the ginger-garlic paste. Stir well.
Add the dry powders.
You will now need to add a little water, since the dry powders will absorb all the oil.
Turn down the flame and simmer for 5 minutes. When you open it you will find that the masala has released the oil into the water.
Add the mince and stir well until the mince and masala are well blended and fried.
Add salt, tomato sauce and water. Cover and simmer till the mince is cooked (approx. 10 minutes).
Open and dry if necessary on a fast fire. Check for salt.
Serve with a generous sprinkling of chopped green coriander.
Useful Tips:
- Add green peas and/or diced potatoes to increase the quantity – check if more salt is required.
- The ideal way would be to replace the tomato sauce with diced tomatoes, adding them to the onions and masala, but then you would have to cover and simmer for at least 15 minutes till the tomatoes melt and the masala releases the oil.
- If you wish to have a thick gravy, then grind the onions along with the dry masalas and ginger-garlic paste, and fry well. Adjust the quantity of water accordingly.
- If you do not have garam masala powder after the rai (mustard seed) pops add 1” of cinnamon, 6-8 cloves and 3 cardamon before putting in the onions.
- If you wish to be really fussy, replace ginger-garlic paste with 1” ginger and 8 flakes garlic ground into a paste.
- The same recipe can also be used for cubes of meat and/or chicken, though I would not recommend it for fish or prawns.