Keema Curry

Today I was really short of food, the fridge is looking really bare. I need to do a shop. I do my thing where I open the fridge door, stare in for a minute, shut the door, walk away and come back again. Do the same thing again, each time hoping that I will suddenly find inspiration with a couple of mouldy leeks and some shriveled up carrots.
Luckily I had some beef mince in the freezer, and a cupboard full of spices, so tonight's meal is a really lovely meat curry.  This recipe was again given to me by my father in law Graham, it's from a book called "The Complete Book of Curries" by Harvey Day from the 1970's. I have a few variations of this recipe from Graham but this is the one I have the ingredients for tonight. If I were to have only a few spices in my cupboard, it would be cumin, coriander, ginger, chilli powder and turmeric. The basics for a good curry. As with any curry this would be great made in advance and eaten the day after to let all the flavours do their thing. I still had to pop to the shops to buy the accompaniments which make the curry even more special.

Ingredients
Serves 4
500g lean mince beef
2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
1 large onion finely choppped
cooking oil
tin of chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp of tomato puree
salt and pepper
2 dessertspoon ground coriander
1 tsp of turmeric
1 tsp of ground ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
half tsp ground chillis (optional)
150-200g of plain yoghurt (I just used a couple of large tablespooons)
Juice of 2 limes or 1 lemon

Method
Take a heavy deep pan with a well fitting lid. Add a couple of tbsp of oil and heat.  Add the onion and when this has started to yellow add the garlic. Stir well and continue to fry until the onion is dark brown at the edges.
Add the spices and stir them well into the oil and the onions (add a bit more oil if needed to keep the mixture liquid). Fry for 1-2 min. Add a good pinch of salt and some ground pepper and then add the meat. Stir well to mix the meat and the spices, break up any lumps and fry until all the pinkness has gone.
Add the chopped tomatoes. For a richer taste stir in the tomato puree. Add the juice of the limes or the lemon. Cover and simmer for at least 30 min. 

10-15 min before serving gently stir in the yoghurt. I had some frozen coriander leaves which I added at this point. Taste and add more salt if needed. If there is too much liquid, reduce by cooking uncovered for the final period of cooking.

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