Minced Meat

Cuisine: American

Cook Time: 15 Minutes

Serves: 4

Minced meat or Kheema, as it is known in India, is a very delicious dish that can be eaten as such (very common in India) or as a base for innumerable dishes. Now come to how to make this easy and not so quick recipe (well, it takes its own sweet time) for a perfect evening meal, if you are craving something spicy or as a base sauce for your pasta and lasagna.

Minced machine or food processor.
A fresh quality well-cut meat (pork, beef, lamb, turkey)
1 tablespoon of Indian spice mix (lots of peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, black cardamom, nutmeg, dry ginger), very finely ground.
2 big onions
2 big tomatoes
8-10 garlic cloves
1 inch peeled ginger
2 teaspoon cumin seeds
Any vegetable oil

A very adaptable and flexible food which is cheaper and can be mixed and matched with a number of cuisines, from Indian to Italian to Mexican.

Take a big skillet and put some vegetable oil in it. Now add some cumin seeds and let them splutter for some time.
Add finely chopped vegetables in a stepwise manner. First, add onions and heat them till they turn brown. After that, add ginger and garlic paste to it, and cook it for some time. Finally, add tomatoes to this mixture and wait until it cooks into a fine paste.
In a food processor or mincing machine, add cut pieces of meat to it and process it for 2 minutes.
Don't process the meat too much, as it may turn too mushy or gooey.
Put this into the skillet and mix it well with onion-tomato puree.
Add 1 tablespoon of grounded spices and cook well on a low flame. Let the spices do their magic and turn off after 30 minutes.
Finally, garnish with fresh coriander or parsley leaves.

Chef Tip: You can skip the onions and tomatoes if you want to use them as a base for other cuisines. Simply add some grounded spices of your choice and your mincemeat is good to go.

This Keema or mincemeat can be frozen for future use and can be used as a ragu sauce for lasagna and pasta.

Quick Bites

Fun Fact

"Making mincemeat" of someone means defeating him or her easily and soundly at something.
It may sound ludicrous but, in fact, there was one Christmas in which eating mince pie (originally stuffed with minced meat) was illegal. It was the Christmas of 1644, which fell on a legally mandated day of fasting. However, mince pies were never strictly themselves banned. Although, they were strongly disapproved of as a symbol of the immoral excesses of the festive season.

Historical Fact

Minced meat originally came about as a good way of preserving meat, without salting, curing, smoking, or drying it. In 1413, King Henry V served a minced meat pie at his coronation. Henry the VII was fond of the meaty Christmas pie as a main dish, filled with minced meat and fruit.
English recipes from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries describe a fermented mixture of meat and fruit used as a pie filling.

Nutrition Fact

4 oz of cooked minced meat contains 308 calories of which 177 are from fat. It further contains 20g of fat, 101mg of cholesterol, 103mg of sodium, 421mg of potassium, 0g of carbohydrates, and 31g of protein.
Meat is a good source of protein, vitamins, and minerals such as iron, zinc, and B vitamins. It is one of the main sources of vitamin B12, also found in milk.