Tuesday 26 October 2010

Minced meat- 2 ways

This is a pretty lame post and and even lamer pic...no patience for food styling and all. So apologies in advance.
Remember I mentioned my cousins were visiting..well we ended up partying it hard over the weekend and was lethargic whole of Monday. Needless to say, we had a blast, but in the process these are the things I learned:
1. Red wine gives me a hang over
2. Gin and tonic is my new found love which brings me to the next point
3. NEVER mix your drinks
4. Next time think a hundred times before deciding to order an entire case of wine off the Internet.
5. Thank the inventor of the dish washer again and again.

So after all that I spent whole of yesterday in bed watching silly mallu movies and making do with left over food for dinner. Had to get off my ass today because of some important deadlines I had to meet but I'm still pretty pathetic with regard to stamina. I have to rest and be ready for Thursday when they will be back from Ireland :)
I had only mince meat and that too quite a bit of it and so decided to go berserk with it since it was raining and windy and incredibly cold to go out and do grocery shopping.

Basic kheema recipe
So with half kg minced meat I made a kheema sorta thing and used that for my empanadas. I was kinda bored with my basic mince meat recipe and so tried out this recipe by PreeOccupied which came out really well. Its a keeper I'd say!

Pizza dough Empanadas
I made use of my leftover pizza dough to make these simple empanadas and they taste pretty darn good.

Pizza base mix- 1, 100 gm packet kneaded according to instructions. Alternatively, follow this recipe.
Cheddar cheese- 1.4 cup (optional)
Butter melted- 1/2 tbsp
Flour- to dust the working surface

Pre heat the oven to 220C
Once the dough has puffed up the first time, knock it back and make about 6 to 7 lemon size balls out of it.
Dust the working surface with enough flour and roll each of it into a circle or oval shape.
Fill with enough mince meat (about 1 tbsp for each circle) and cheddar cheese (if using) and cover carefully. With the tip of your finger, seal it and use a fork to create impressions around the edges if you want to.
Place them on a baking tray lined with a baking sheet because oil might ooze out and make a mess. You don't want to end up scrubbing the tray.
Using a basting brush, generously butter the empanadas for that brown colour. You can also do the same with egg if you please. I was lazy.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes and serve hot with sour cream:)

Minced beef Kebabs (seekh kebab)
With the remaining 200 grams I decided to make seekh kebabs. Something I was very doubtful about, but turned out incredibly yum and it was so darn easy to make.

Minced lean beef- 200
Onion- 1 small, roughly chopped
Green chillies- 3, thinly sliced
Coriander leaves- 1/4 cup, washed and roughly chopped
Kashmiri chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
Garlic paste- 1/2 tbsp
Egg- 1 small
Gram flour- 1 tbsp
Salt- to taste
Wooden skewers- 8 or more

Soak the wooden skewers in water for at least 20 minutes
Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl till well combined. If it happens to a be a bit loose, add some more gram flour.
Take small portions in your hand and press it on to the skewers, binding well. If its too heavy then it might fall off (yup I learned from my mistake).
Place them in a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake in an over preheated at 220 C for 20 minutes, turning them occasionally.
You get absolutely delicious and juicy beef kebabs. Serve them with cucumber raita or just a salad.
Notes: Use bread crumbs instead of gram flour
You can make them into patties as well and use the same for burgers.

26 comments:

Torviewtoronto said...

favourites these look wonderful

Binys Recipes said...

Empanadas and seekh kebabs looks awesome...the pic doesn't matter cos the recipe is sooooo awesome....
Biny

Cool Lassi(e) said...

My, the stuffed empanadas look awesome. Nothing lame about that picture. I love anything stuffed and this has my name all over it. Lovely!

Unknown said...

Lucky i never had wine handover provided i stick only to it! oh yea mixing drink oh darling i have had my share of experienced, worst hangover ever, hope god remembers what all i drank that day. anyways gin and tonic, sorry but somehow i find it as a combination of medicine in cold water :P i found a recipe today with gin and tonic cookies may i should fwd it to you! Both ways of meat looks comfortable :) have a great time when ur cousins are back, just out of curiosity are you done with whole case of wine? :P

Suji said...

Both the empanadas and sheek kababs llooks yumm Nisha...I dont eat beef, but still it looks tempting!!

Anonymous said...

I loved the mallu movie part :).skewers look yum

Satrupa said...

Sure u had a blast gurl ...... n ur post is a keeper :)

Cheers n Happy Cooking,
Satrupa

http://satrupa-foodforthought.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

I luv both the ways...looks so so tempting

Unknown said...

I have never cooked minced meat before. Your pictures are tempting me to try it out real soon..

Reshmi Ahmed said...

seekh kababs are my favourites anytime of the day !

Suja Manoj said...

Stuffed empanadas looks awesome and so is the sheek kababs..super delicious,bookmarked

Umm Mymoonah said...

The picture doesn't look that lame as you said. It actually looks very good for me, may be not your usual style.
Both empanadas and kebabs looks lovely.

Priya Suresh said...

Kebabs and empanadas, am coming rite now to ur place:)..very tempting..

Unknown said...

nice lovely recipes..both looks really special and nice :)

Soumya said...

Very tempting....beautiful presentation.
Hey, you got an award http://traditional-indian-cooking.blogspot.com/p/awards.html

Anonymous said...

Those look so tasty! Lame nothing - great job! :)

Monet said...

Red wine gives me a nasty hangover too! I'm sure you had some great memories though...and I hope you start feeling better in the very near future. Personally, I think that these shots look great! I loved the pastries filled with the minced meat. Wow!

Yours Truly said...

love those photographs, looks delicious and juicy!

Deeba PAB said...

These empanadas look fab, and the seekhs even better. Bookmarked to try soon!

Sushma Mallya said...

Pics are so beautiful..Looks tempting,would love to try this with chicken...

Sreelekha Sumesh said...

Both look irresistible.Yummy

Sunitha said...

Awesome! Empanadas and the kababs look great.

PreeOccupied said...

This is lame? LOL. I love the empanadas. I have an Argentinian neighbor who refuses to reach me how to make them. LOL. I love the kebabs.

Red gives me migraines, so I never drink any. Thanks for the mention. All the photos are lovely.

PJ said...

looks like you had a great time! even without the styling the first photo is awesome.

Unknown said...

You are way too hard on yourself - before I even got to the text I was thinking what a great photo that was!

I really must make some little pasties like this. They would be good for lunch for my two "boys".

Karen said...

Both dishes look delicious! Your kebabs sound so good...I love the flavors in them. I'll have to give those a try. Yum!