Keema (mince) with Upma and Raitha
Beef mince simmered in a spicy tomato gravy with potatoes and peas, teamed with cooked and tempered semolina and yoghurt salad. Keema is a Mughlai dish from the north of India, but it goes just perfectly well with upma, which is a South Indian dish. The upma is soft, the keema has a really deep flavour and the raitha balances it out harmoniously. It's the perfect Sunday lunch.
To make this dish, first make the keema and while that simmering away make the upma and the raitha.
Notes on Keema
Minced beef is quite hard in texture so simmering it for long is key to making it soft. Beef kind of does its own thing given time and heat and develops on its own without much intervention. I've used mince with 15% fat. If there isn't enough fat then you can add some ghee.
I have added garam masala and jeera to give the North Indian influence but use these spices carefully. They are necessary but should not overpower the rich mineral flavour of beef.
Notes on accompaniments
There is a secret to making perfect upma which is soft in the mouth but still discernible as separate grains. You need to use very coarse semolina, dry-roast it and add ghee. Dry-roasting prevents the upma from becoming clumpy and gives a lovely flavour. Ghee helps retain the moisture and when cooked, coarse grains absorb water but still hold their shape.
Now if the semolina is too fine, it takes the same amount of cooking time but breaks down into a glutinous lump. When coarse semolina has completely absorbed the water and is fully cooked, the texture will be soft and the grains will be separate but still stick together.
In a raitha, the proportion of vegetables to yogurt is key to having a pleasant experience. The way the vegetables are sliced or chopped also contributes to the flavour.
Beef mince simmered in a spicy tomato gravy with potatoes and peas, teamed with cooked and tempered semolina and yoghurt salad. Keema is a Mughlai dish from the north of India, but it goes just perfectly well with upma, which is a South Indian dish. The upma is soft, the keema has a really deep flavor and the raitha balances it out harmoniously. It's the perfect Sunday lunch.
- 500 g beef mince (15% fat)
- 3 nos medium tomatoes (chopped)
- 2 nos large potatoes (diced in 1cm cubes)
- 1 cup peas (frozen is fine)
- 2.5 nos medium onions (sliced thinly)
- 7 clove garlic (large cloves chopped)
- 10 g ginger (chopped)
- 3 nos green finger chillies (chopped)
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp chilly powder
- 2 tbsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp jeera powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 2 tbsp ghee (if mince has no fat)
- 500 g very coarse semolina
- 3 tbsp ghee
- 1/2 nos onion (finely chopped)
- 10 g ginger (finely chopped)
- 3 nos green finger chillies (finely chopped)
- 10 nos curry leaf
- 2 tbsp split urid dal (optional)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 3/4 tsp salt (adjust to taste)
- 750 ml boiling water (adjust as required)
- 2 nos medium tomatoes (chopped)
- 1 nos medium red onion (chopped)
- 2 nos green finger chilly (chopped)
- 10 nos curry leaf (torn)
- 500 ml greek yoghurt
- 1/2 tsp chilly powder (adjust to taste)
- 1/2 tsp jeera powder (adjust to taste)
- 3/4 tsp salt (adjust to taste)
Dice the potatoes into small cubes. Rough chop garlic, ginger and green chilies and tomatoes. Thinly slice onions.
Heat a large wok to a high temperature. (Check by adding a small piece of meat. It should sizzle). Add beef mince to the wok.
Add salt and move it around. The mince will quickly start to release its fat.
Continue frying until all the meat is grey and water is released.
Let this water evaporate to reveal the fat.
Use this fat to fry the mince for a couple of minutes. Then add onions and fry until translucent.
Add ginger, garlic and green chillies and fry for about 3 minutes. The raw smell should fade.
Now add all the powder spices and fry for about 3 minutes until they are cooked.
Finally add the tomatoes and fry until most of the water is evaporated and the fat comes to the top. While this is frying boil water.
Check and adjust salt then add about 500ml boiling water. Bring to the boil.
Cover and simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes.
Add potatoes and peas and top up the water. Mix to combine.
Cover again and simmer for a further 20 minutes.
Simmer the final 20 minutes uncovered to concentrate the flavours.
After an hour of simmering, you should get a thick dark mince gravy with all of the flavours soaked into the meat and vegetables.
While the keema is simmering away, prepare upma. Dry roast semolina until its colour changes to a paler shade and set aside.
Add ghee to a hot wok and heat until spluttering hot. You can check by adding a couple of mustard seeds and letting it pop. Add mustard seeds and urid dal and let it pop and splutter, then turn the heat down
Add onions, ginger, chillies, curry leaves and sautee until translucent.
Add roasted semolina with salt and fry until coated well. Boil water while this is frying.
Add boiling water to submerge the mixture. Stir a couple of times then let it simmer to aborb the water and swell up to slightly more than double.
Now dry it out until you have a consistency that is moist with the grains separate but slightly sticky. Making upma should take about 30 min.
Chop all the vegetables.
Mix them together giving a gentle squeeze so that the flavours of onion and curry leaf combine with the tomatoes.
Transfer to a dish and add salt.
Stir in yoghurt.
Dust chilly powder and Jeera powder and set aside.
Ladle a generous portion of keema over the upma and add raitha on the side. Tuck in and enjoy with a cold drink!
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