From Scratch

This a curried ground meat dish from South Africa, and although there are other spellings of the name, this is the way it came to me years ago. I’ve made it with lean ground beef and with ground chicken but really prefer it with lamb, which I’ve used here. I usually cut the recipe in half with no problems.

While I favor streamlining, I do add one quick step when I use lamb — I drain and rinse it after it’s browned because it tends to be fatty. During the eleven months when tomatoes aren’t in season, I used canned diced tomatoes; these are chunky organic ones. And while this is delicious with any kind of rice, I like it with baby peas added  for eye appeal and because I love peas.

It is a somewhat spicy dish — I like spice — but not fiery. If it looks as if it might be too spicy for your taste, by all means use less. You can always add more but you can’t remove. By the way, I don’t use anywhere near as much oil as the recipe indicates.

Geema Kerrie- South African Ground Meat Curry

2 pounds ground beef or lamb
3 small onions, chopped
1/4 cup oil
2 tablespoons ginger, grated
4 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large tomatoes
2 chile peppers, chopped fine
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon garam masala

Brown meat over moderate heat.  Set aside.  In a separate large skillet, gently fry onions in oil just until golden  brown. 

Meanwhile, pound or grind the ginger and garlic into a paste.  When onions are ready, add to skillet the ginger and garlic paste, salt, tomatoes, chiles, curry powder and turmeric.

Finallly, stir in the meat and continue simmering for about 20 minutes, or until well cooked. Remove from heat, mix in garam masala, and serve with rice or Indian bread.

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Tags: beef, chicken, lamb