Lobia Qeema

A lovely combination of black eyed peas and minced meat. I have observed a very few people making this curry. It always feels awkward when people hear about this combination and say they have never tried it, anyways here is the recipe…easy to make and goes very well with boiled rice.

Ingredients:

250-300 gm minced meat (you can use lamb or beef)

250 gm sufaid lobia/ black eyed peas

2 medium onions thinly sliced

1&1/2 tsp red chili powder (or to taste)

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

½ tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

1/2 cup oil

3 medium tomatoes (pureed)

2-3 green chilies Chopped (or you can use them whole)

4-5 black peppercorn

 2 cloves

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

2-3 tbsp chopped  fresh coriander

Method:

1) Soak the beans in water for 8 hours or overnight. To boil the beans first discard the water then transfer soaked beans in to a pan, add 5-6 cups of water and bring the beans to a boil, and then lower the heat and simmer for 60 to 90 minutes, or until the beans are tender.

2) Heat the oil in a pan, add onions fry till light brown, add cumin seeds and ginger & garlic paste, stir for 2 minutes then add pureed tomatoes, salt, red chili powder, black pepper corn , cloves, black cardamom and fry it well until the raw smell of masala has gone(sprinkle some water if you need to in between) .

3) Add qeema, fry it for further 5-8 minutes, then add beans along with any left over liquid (add more water if required, we need about 2 cups of water in total) and simmer over medium-low heat until the qeema is cooked and the oil begins to separate from the sides (takes about 15-25 minutes). Keep in mind we don’t want it to be very dry, try to keep the gravy at the thicker end though.

4) Sprinkle garam masala, coriander powder,  chopped fresh coriander, green chilies, cover the pan and put it on dum (on low flame) for 5 minutes, serve with plain boiled rice or roti.