Kheema is yet another quintessentially Parsi dish. Ridiculously simple to make and amazingly delicious to eat, it is a staple at my house and gets cooked atleast once in ten days. Regardless of this fact, ask any Bawa what they look forward to most when they visit Udvada – a religious place of worship for Parsis – and they will tell you that it is eating Kheema Pav at the sanitorium for breakfast.
Everyone has their own version for making Kheema and there are slight variations based on how you plan on serving it and the time of day. For example, if you plan on making Kheema na Pattice for a tea time snack then you should avoid adding the tomatoes and add in some sugar and vinegar. Or, if you plan on having Kheema with Khichdi for dinner then don’t let the water dry out too much so that it forms a nice gravy. My favourite version which I’ve shared below is where I add in some green peas and potatoes and just have it with some home-made bread for lunch.
In case you are wondering why I have changed the cooking pot in each step – I must confess that even though I’ve made Kheema many times in the past couple of months for some reason the photography process has been jinxed – either my phone dies or I miss taking a step or some other minor catastrophe happens. So, I hope you enjoy making this one at home and even more enjoy eating it for breakfast lunch or dinner with the family! Ingredient’s at the bottom as always.
To begin, marinate the kheema in red chilli powder, ginger-garlic paste and some salt for about 30 minutes
While this marinates, finely chop the onion and green chillies.
In a pan, heat up some oil and fry the onions and green chillies until the onions turn translucent
Add in Kheema and fry until brown
Add in tomatoes as well as the turmeric, garam-masala and dhana-jeera
Mix well until the masala’s are all incorporated into the kheema
Add in the tomato puree or pasta sauce, green peas, potatoes as well as about 1/3 cup water. Cover the pot and cook the Kheema for about 20 minutes
If you feel there is too much moisture in the kheema, remove the cover and let the water dry out. Else, garnish with coriander and serve hot with khichdi or with home-baked bread.
Kheema packed into a box for a Bawa style picnic lunch
To make Kheema for 4 – 5 people you will need:
1 large onion finely chopped
2 green chillies chopped
350 gm mutton or lamb kheema (drained well)
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1.5 tsp turmeric powder
1.5 tsp red-chilli powder
1.5 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp dhana – jeera powder
3 large tomatoes finely chopped
1/2 cup tomato puree or pasta sauce
1 potato cut into squares
1/2 cup green peas
Salt to taste
1 tbsp oil
Coriander to garnish
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I have been reading and using recipes from your blog for some time now and thought I would thank you for your wonderful recipes. I am a Parsi from Bombay and I have been living in California for the past 40 years. My passion is baking but lately since my Mom doesn’t cook much anymore and my 91 year old Dad craves gher noo bhonu, I have been cooking Parsi food. It struck me that we have a lot in common. My husband, Neil, is from New Zealand, the oldest of my three sons is named Rushad, my aunt lives in Dadar and my Grandma was a Patel. How about it? I cooked your Shehenshahi palau for my Parsi cousins who were visiting from Connecticut. We had a feast at our Vineyard picnic table and the palau was a smash hit. Today I made Khichri Kheemo with Papat and Neil licked the platter clean. Anyhow, I just wanted to thank you for your super blog and tell you that if you ever visit California, look me up and we will have a Parsi Picnic in our vineyard.