Mutton keema curry – keema masala – a mutton keema recipe

Mutton keema curry or keema masala is a delicious easy-to-make mutton keema recipe. Mutton keema curry is basically an Indian-style minced lamb or goat meat curry cooked in ghee & oil with a spicy masala-based gravy. This keema curry is quite similar to the North Indian-style mutton masala recipe. In our Bengali language, this spicy keema curry is simply described as mutton keema kosha. This mutton mince curry goes best with homemade roti, chapati & paratha. However, can serve this keema curry with naan, kulcha, and tandoori roti too. Even you can have this keema masala with plain white rice, pulao, or Biryani.

What is keema or mince?

Keema or mince which is the key ingredient of this recipe depicts tiny pieces of meat, but mind it is not the paste of meat. In India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, finely chopped boneless meat is introduced as keema. That mince or keema is made from mutton(means lamb or goat meat), chicken, or beef. And mince is easily available in local meat shops.

About this keema recipe

• Keema curry is a very popular dish in India and Pakistan. In India, it is a part of Hyderabadi & Mughlai cuisine. Popularly known as keema gosht too. Gosht is an Urdu term that means meat especially indicates red meat like lamb or goat meat or beef.
• Keema, a key ingredient of this recipe depicts mince or tiny pieces of meat not the paste of meat. In India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, finely chopped boneless meat is introduced as keema. That mince is made from mutton(which means lamb or goat meat), chicken, or beef. And mince is easily available in local meat shops.
• As keema is prepared from boneless meat, seems does not take long hours to cook. But to make the meat perfectly soft and juicy requires a little bit more time than expected especially if cooked in a pan. Though this long-time factor is only applicable for mutton or beef mince, not for chicken mince. However, pressure cooking is one of the easiest and quickest methods to make the mince soft and juicy as I showed in this recipe.
• Except for minced meat, simple yet easily available kitchen spices are the other ingredients of this recipe. Basically used those spices, are easily available in every Indian kitchen. So in that sense, it is easy to make at home too.  
• Generally, it is almost the same masalas we use in making other Indian mutton curry recipes. Except for a few special spices which make it different from others.
• To make it delicious, keema needs to roast in oil along with its flavourful spices. As for how long the mince will be cooked in masala, the intense flavor of masala will be perfectly infused into the meat and make it more flavourful as well as delicious. This roasting method is called bhuna(in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) and due to this method, this recipe is also known as keema bhuna too.
• This recipe is influenced by royal Mughlai cuisine, so this dish is mostly prepared in ghee and flavored with a special homemade powdered garam masala. That combined flavor of ghee and garam masala mostly creates magic in it.
• For having that restaurant-style red rich oily gravy, must add the tadka(tempering) at last by adding Kashmiri chili powder on hot ghee or oil. It will create the rogan(red rich oil flotes on the gravy), which we can see in restaurant-style keema curry recipes.

Make this mutton keema curry at home and please let me know your valuable feedback about this mutton mince recipe. I hope my step-by-step recipe will help you to do it perfectly.

Mutton keema curry – keema masala – a mutton keema recipe

Mutton keema curry – keema masala – a mutton keema recipe

Recipe by Moumita PaulCourse: Dinner, Side dishCuisine: Mughlai/North IndianDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

35

minutes

Calories

492

kcal

Mutton keema curry or keema masala is a delicious mutton keema recipe. It is basically an Indian-style minced lamb or goat meat curry, made by cooking mince or keema in a spicy masala-based gravy.

Ingredients

• 350 g Mutton keema(lamb/goat meat mince)

• 2 onion(medium size)

• 2 tsp garlic paste

• 3/4 tsp ginger paste

• 5 green chilies (finely chopped)

• 1 tomato(medium-sized)

• 2 tbsp curd/yogurt/dahi/doi

• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder

• 1 tsp spicy chili powder

• 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

• 1 1/2 tsp homemade powdered garam masala

• A handful of coriander leaves(finely chopped)

• 3 tbsp ghee

• 2 tbsp oil

• 2 green cardamom

• 3 cloves

• 1/2 inch cinnamon stick

• 2 bay leaves

• Salt(as per taste)

• For making homemade powdered garam masala

• 1 tsp peppercorn

• 4 cloves

• 1-inch cinnamon stick

• 1 black cardamom

• 1/8 nutmeg/jaifal
  Ground these whole spices to make a finely powdered masala out of it.

• For tadka or tempering(at last)

• 2 tbsp ghee

• 1 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder

How to make mutton keema curry

• Thoroughly clean the keema/mince in water, and drain it well.
  
• Heat ghee & oil in a pressure cooker. Fry the whole spices(cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves).
• Fry the onion until gets pink/translucent. Add chopped tomatoes, and cook until soft & mushy.
  
• Then add ginger-garlic paste, chopped green chilies, spicy red chili powder, Kashmiri red chili powder, turmeric, and salt. Roast the masala well.
  
• Once the raw smell of masala goes off & it leaves oil, then add the mince to the cooker. Stir it well. Cook it for 1-2 mins.
  
• Then add the well-beaten curd or yogurt(dahi/doi), and mix it well with the mince. Cook it for 4-5 mins or until again masala leaves oil by continuous stirring.
• Add 3/4 cup hot water, mix it well, let the gravy starts boiling, and close the lid of the cooker.
  Wait for 4-5 whistle blows on medium to high flame.
• Remove the lid when it cools down or after automatically releasing the pressure. Again put it on medium to high heat to reduce its gravy, slightly dry it up, then add the homemade powdered garam masala. Mix it well. Let it cook.
• In the meantime, heat a pan with ghee(preferably desi ghee), and add a teaspoon of Kashmiri chili powder to it. Immediately adds it to the curry. Mix it well. Though this step is not mandatory so you may easily skip it.
• Cook the gravy till the oil comes up, and sprinkle a handful of finely chopped coriander leaves. Mix it well. Just cook it for another 30 secs to 1 min and turn off the heat.
• Keema curry or keema masala is ready, serve it with roti, chapati, paratha, naan, kulcha, tandoori roti. Even you can serve it with plain white rice, pulao, or biryani.

Notes

• Frequent stirring is mandatory to prevent the dish from burning or sticking to the pan. Must use hot water to keep the taste intact. Cook it for more time If making it at the pan.
• Check this recipe in detail below, described with step-by-step pictures.

You may try some of my other mutton curry recipes, i.e, Bengali recipes Mutton Kosha, Golbarir mutton kosha, Mutton er Jhol & Kolkata Style Mutton Chaap. Even Kashmiri Mutton Rogan Josh, North Indian Restaurant Style Mutton Masala, Hyderabadi Style Mutton Chops, Karnataka Style Mutton Ghee Roast.

But if you are particularly searching for other Keema or mince recipes, then you may check my Awadhi Style Mutton Kofta Curry, Mutton Seekh Kabab Recipe, and Bengali Style Chicken Cutlet recipe.  

How to make mutton keema curry with step by step pictures

Instructions

• First, clean the keema/mince, keep it in a bowl, thoroughly wash in water and drain it well. 
• Keep all other ingredients ready.

• Heat a pressure cooker on medium flame, add 3 tbsp ghee and 2 tbsp oil in it.
• Once the oil is hot, add the whole spices(2 green cardamoms, 3 cloves, 1/2 inch cinnamon, 2 bay leaves) for tempering. Fry it well.

• Add the finely chopped onion to the cooker, fry it well until the onion gets translucent.
• Then add finely chopped tomatoes to the oil. Fry it until gets soft and mushy.

• Thereafter add ginger-garlic paste, green chilies (finely chopped), spicy red chili powder, Kashmiri red chili powder, turmeric powder, and salt.
• Cook it in oil until the raw smell goes off and the oil starts separating the masala.
• Then you can see lots of tiny bubbles of oil appears around the roasted spices. 
• Stir the spices well and then add the keema to the cooker.
• Mix the mince well with the roasted masala and let it cook for 1-2 mins.
• In this stage, frequently stir the keema to avoid it burning from the bottom.

• Then add the well-beaten curd or yogurt, and mix it up well with the mince.
• After adding curd, the mince will release lots of water.
• Cook the mince till that water almost dries off and again oil appears by the sides of the gravy.

• Then add 3/4 cup of hot water to it and mix it well with mince.
• Once the gravy starts boiling, close the lid of the cooker and cook it for 4-5 whistle blows on medium to high flame. 
• Turn off the cooker and wait till the cooker automatically release its pressure.

• Then remove the lid of the cooker and again turn on the heat to dry up the gravy.
• After cooking for 2 mins or when the gravy starts boiling then add the homemade powdered garam masala in it. Mix it well.
• Cook it for 4-5 mins.

• For adding tadka, heat a small tadka pan with 2 tbsp of ghee and 1 tsp of Kashmiri chili powder, mix it up, and immediately add it to the gravy.
• Tadka is not mandatory(only used in restaurant recipes) so you can skip this step.

• Once the gravy gets thick and bubbles appear over the gravy, add the handful of finely chopped coriander leaves, mix it nicely.
• Once the Rogan((red rich oil over the food) appears over the gravy, turn off the heat.

• Keema curry is ready, serve it with roti, chapati, paratha, naan, kulcha, and tandoori roti. Though you can have it with plain white rice, pulao, or Biryani too.

Tips for making various recipes with keema

• Here I used the spices proportionate to the weight of the mince which helps to remove the strong smell of mutton. However, sometimes mutton’s raw smell is too strong that it can spoil the taste of this curry. Then we need to add more garlic and little more garam masala to kill the smell. 
• While cooking, continuous stirring is necessary to prevent the keema from burning.
• Generally, keema curry tastes a little spicy so here I add chili as per my spice consumption. However, you can make it more or less spicy too.
• Never add water until the raw smell of masala goes off or till the masala leaves oil from its sides. Otherwise, that raw smell can spoil the taste of this curry. Try to use hot water to maintain its taste intact.
• Tadka is not mandatory, however, that last-minute tadka brings that restaurant style taste, but make it more rich and oily too. So apply it only if you want to get that restaurant-style rogan or roughan(red rich oil) over the gravy, otherwise, skip this step.
• Must use ghee(preferably desi ghee) in cooking to get that awesome taste and flavor contained in Royal Mughlai cuisine or Hyderabadi cuisine.
• If you want to add some south Indian flavor ( as mostly used in Hyderabad), lastly you can use curry leaves in tadka(or tempering).
• Interestingly you may turn this recipe into so many Indian recipes made with keema or mince. How? Like, if you add 1/2 cup of green peas to this recipe, you can easily make keema matar. Even you can dry off its gravy and store it in the refrigerator for 4-5 days to use it in making the filling of paratha or samosa. So here two more keema recipes are ready, one with a wonderful breakfast keema paratha, and the other one is, perfect for evening snacks keema samosa. Isn’t it a great idea?