Mild Keema with Rice

Ingredients

• 500g lamb mince
• 200ml hot chicken stock
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 160g frozen peas
• salt and black pepper to taste
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, grated
• 25g fresh root ginger, grated
• 2 tbsp mild curry powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 280g basmati rice, rinsed
• 1 bay leaf
• 20g unsalted butter
• 15g coriander, roughly chopped
• 0.5 lemon, cut into wedges
• Natural yoghurt, to serve
• Mango chutney, to serve
• Naan bread, to serve

Method

1. Heat a large deep frying pan over a medium-high heat with a splash of oil. Season the lamb mince generously with salt and pepper, then add it to the pan in two batches — all at once and the pan crowds, water comes out, and you've boiled the meat instead of browning it. Fry each batch for 8 to 10 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until properly browned with crisp edges and the liquid has cooked off.
2. With all the mince back in the pan, stir in the onion with a pinch of salt and cook for 6 minutes until softened and translucent, scraping up the brown stuck bits from the base as you go — that's where the flavour lives.
3. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds, just until fragrant — no more. Burnt garlic turns the whole dish bitter, so watch it.
4. Tip in the curry powder and ground cumin and bloom them in the oil for 30 to 60 seconds until fragrant and toasty. Raw spices taste dusty; bloomed spices taste of themselves. Stir in the tomato puree and cook for 1 minute more to take the raw edge off.
5. Pour in the chopped tomatoes and the hot chicken stock, scraping up anything still clinging to the base of the pan. The stock is what breaks the tomatoes down — without it you get the tinned, metallic note, with it you get rich and round. Simmer gently for 15 minutes until the sauce looks glossy and slightly thickened, with little pools of fat catching the light on the surface.
6. Stir in the frozen peas and simmer for 5 minutes until tender and bright green. Taste, season, taste again — adjust the salt and pepper now, not at the table.
7. While the keema finishes, melt the butter in a saucepan with a pinch of salt. Tip in the rinsed rice and bay leaf, stir for 1 minute to coat each grain in butter, then pour in 520 ml boiling water, cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook on the lowest heat for 12 minutes — no peeking, the steam is doing the work.
8. Turn off the heat and leave the rice covered, undisturbed, for 5 more minutes, then fluff with a fork so the grains stay separate and distinct.
9. Spoon the rice into bowls, ladle the keema over the top, and scatter generously with the chopped coriander. Tuck the lemon wedges alongside for squeezing — that bright squeeze of lemon juice cuts through the richness — and serve with natural yoghurt, mango chutney and warm naan to mop the bowl.