The inspiration for this enticing appetizer comes from my Mum who makes delicious Kheema patties. This involves a delicious mixture (ground goat with lots of spice) in a mashed potato cover which is then shallow fried. Sinful but totally worth it. It is also quite labor intensive, especially the part of stuffing the mince into the potato covers. I took an easier route by using puff pastry sheets, filling little pockets of these with the kheema mixture and baking them. The result was quite good :).
During this long weekend especially with all the cooking and eating, I couldn't help thinking about this article I read a couple of weeks back in The New Yorker. It's a story about this amazing woman (The Good Cook) in North Korea who survived the famine in the 1990s by cooking anything edible, including grass and weeds she collected. Its a story of unimaginable hardship for something as simple as a basic meal. It made me feel eternally grateful for everything we have.
Ingredients:
Marinade:
2 big garlic cloves, grated/minced
1" piece of ginger, grated/minced
3 tablespoons yogurt
1 and 1/2 teaspoons red chili powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoons garam masala
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 kilo mince goat/lamb meat (kheema)
3 cloves
7 peppercorns
1 bayleaf
1/2 cinnamon stick
2 medium sized onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
juice of half lemon
2 puff pastry sheets
- Combine all the ingredients for the marinade together with the ground meat and marinate atleast for an hour or preferably overnight.
- Heat a tablespoon of oil and add all the spices from cloves through cinnamon and fry for a minute or till fragrant.
- Add chopped onion and fry till golden brown.
- Add chopped tomatoes and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add the marinated ground meat mixture and mix well, stirring for another 2 minutes.
- Add a cup of water (add more if more gravy needed, for the puffs its preferable to have no gravy) and bring to a boil.
- Pressure cook till the meat is well cooked (10-15 minutes).
- Cook for another 5 minutes uncovered till the water dries up.
- Add salt if required and lemon juice.
- Let mixture cool down completely.
For making the puffs:
- Roll the puff pastry sheets to thin them out a bit.
- Cut into squares and spoon the filling onto them.
- Bake in a 350F oven for 20 minutes or till golden brown.
2 Puff pastry sheets make around 24 puffs. If there is leftover kheema, I am sure you will find a way to use it up :)
Love it. The famous peffs!
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