What to do with ground beef? (Aaloo Keema)

Aaloo Keema, Ground beef Curry

Ingredients:

• Veg oil to season pan
• 1 Finely diced Onion
• 2 Pounds Ground Beef
• 3-4 Cloves Garlic minced
• 2 Tablespoons minced fresh Gingeroot 
• 1/4 Teaspoon Red Chili Flakes
• 2 Teaspoons Parsley
• 1 Tablespoon Ground Coriander Seed
• 1 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 1/2 Teaspoon ground Cumin
• 1/2 Teaspoon cayenne (Use 1 full Teaspoon if you like extra spicy)
• 1 Teaspoon Turmeric (Use 2 if you like it extra spicy)
• 1 Can diced Tomatoes
• 1 Cup frozen shelled edamame (or green peas)
• 1/2 Cup frozen Corn
• 1/2 Cup 1 cm by 1 cm cubed potatoes
• 1 Teaspoon Garam Masala (An Indian spice blend, not needed, but adds a little something extra)
• Green Onion, finely sliced to garnish
• Sesame seeds to garnish
• Pepper and salt to season

Instructions:

1. Pre-steam the potato cubes for about 10 minutes over boiling water to help speed the cooking process, or you can add them at the same time as the corn and edamame and just reduce the sauce longer. Your choice.
2. Heat and oil your pan as required for a cast iron or nonstick pan, and gently brown the onion over medium heat.
3. Once the onion is just browning add the ground beef, garlic, and ginger root. 
4. Season with salt and pepper and cook the beef thoroughly, breaking it up as it cooks.
5. While the beef is cooking, in a small bowl combine the coriander, salt, cumin, cayenne, turmeric  chili flakes, and parsley and sift together creating a curry spice blend.
6. You can also make extra of this spice blend and use it to make other curried dishes. It's a really nice mild curry flavor, not too spicy.
7. Once the beef is cooked add the can of diced tomatoes, juice and all to the pan 
8. Stir in the the curry spice blend
9. Reduce heat to low and stir and simmer for about 5 minutes.  
10. Then add the edamame and the corn and the pre-steamed potatoes.
11. Continue to cook for about 15-20 minutes until the sauce has thickened and the potatoes are soft. 
12. Sprinkle a teaspoon of garam marsala (or more) over the top of the curried beef and turn the heat off. Let it sit for 5 minutes and serve over top of basmati rice, with green onion and sesame seeds to garnish and naan bread on the side.

Enjoy!

Ps: July 2014, Made this again tonight, left out the potatoes and the sauce still thickened and made it a bit lighter. Plus we had really fresh yummy naan- so we ripped it into small pieces and used the torn naan to roll the curried beef and rice into a little Pakistani taco. I highly suggest eating it this way.

Notes:

I am a person who likes to try a lot of different foods, I get bored if I eat the same thing too often. Which means there are some things (like ground beef) that are common and often on sale that I get bored of eating the same ways that my mother made. Really there are only so many times a girl can eat meat balls, burgers, and meat loaf, before she grows weary of it.  So I had to try and find something new, different but still yummy.

So I've tried a few different things, making different bolognese sauce things, pasta, casseroles, lasagnas, but pasta is not meant for every day. So then I tried making Mexican spicy beef for tacos, burritos, nachos, but that is still a lot of heavy food. Finally I thought what about a curried beef served with basmati rice, and maybe some naan bread.

I looked up a few recipes, but disagreed or didn't like, or just didn't have access to a lot of the things called for in any traditional ground beef recipe. So I made up my own based on a few different sources. Plus tested by me and changed around a bit to make it nearly fool proof. So this is an altered version of Aaloo Keema, a ground meat curry dish from Pakistan. Make it and serve it with some fresh Naan Bread and a lot of Basmati rice with green onions and sesame seeds for garnish.

PS August 2014, Leftovers can be frozen in little portions and defrosted and heated for lunches or dinner again. Reheats and serves perfectly after being frozen.