Kheema - Indian Ground Lamb

Adapted from Aarti Sequeira's Food Network Recipe

Apparently I am on a roll with Indian recipes!  This is one of the first Indian dishes my husband made for me and I absolutely loved it.  I could never figure out how he got the meat to be so soft until he told me that the secret ingredient was a little bit of milk and/or yogurt!  So I added both and it turned out great!  I do have to say that I upped the spices from the original amount because we like lots of heat and flavor so feel free to tone it down if you'd like.  Also I ran out of fresh ginger so I used ginger powder.  You can really play around with the amount of spices to suit the dish to your desired taste.

Yields: 2 - 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons organic extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 large organic onion
• 1 medium organic tomato  
• 2 large organic cloves garlic
• 1-inch fresh ginger (I used ~1 tsp ginger powder)
• 2 jalapenos (optional)
• 4 teaspoons ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons paprika 
• 4 teaspoons garam masala
• 4 teaspoons ground cumin 
• 2 teaspoons red chili powder (2 tsp of red chili powder is quite spicy, reduce to desired heat level -- you can also use cayenne pepper if you don't have red chili powder)
• 1 pound grass-fed ground lamb
• 1/4 cup organic milk
• 3 tablespoons organic plain yogurt
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

Chop the onion, tomato, garlic and ginger.  Slit the jalapenos length-wise.

In a large skillet, warm the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until golden.

 

Add the garlic and ginger (or ginger powder) and saute for another minute. 

Stir in the coriander, paprika, garam masala, cumin and red chili powder/cayenne and cook for 1 minute.

Add the lamb, breaking up lumps with a spoon, and saute until the meat is no longer pink.  Add the milk and yogurt, season with salt and pepper and mix.

Add the tomatoes and jalapenos, stir well and simmer, partially covered, about 5 - 10 minutes.