Rachel Makes Lamb Keema Tacos

You want it to have just a little bit of fat.

All of these little pools of saucy goodness

is exactly what you want.

Look at that.

That's [beep] gorgeous!

[mellow music]

Today, I'm gonna make lamb keema tacos.

Keema means minced.

So you could have all kinds of keema.

There's mutton keema.

You can have a chicken keema, paneer keema.

In this recipe, you combine ground lamb

with a ton of spices, some onions,

a little bit of tomato to make this stewy, saucy dish.

And then we're serving it on tortillas

with some fresh onions and a squeeze of lime.

And this recipe is super simple and easy

so you can make it on a weeknight.

I'm gonna start by cutting some ginger.

It's about a two-inch piece,

and just gonna peel it with the back of my knife.

You could also use a spoon.

I like using just chopped ginger and garlic in this

just because it gives a little bit of a bite.

It's about slowly, you know, adding layers of flavor.

Sometimes you're not able to put a finger on, you know,

how all the flavors come together,

or like you'll taste something in the back

and you won't really know what it is,

but it adds so much to the dish.

I think that's the mark of a good curry

or like Indian style dish.

Now, I'm gonna cut my onion.

So when you are peeling,

it's important to go until at least the third layer,

because if you were to leave this thin layer on,

your knife would slip on it 'cause it's slippery,

and then it also wouldn't cook down fully.

So my prep is ready,

and now I'm ready to get the keema started.

And we're gonna cook the masala a fair bit.

So it's going to stick a little bit to the pan

and that's totally fine,

but make sure that it's heavy bottom

so you don't end up burning it.

So I'm gonna add about three tablespoons

worth of olive oil in here,

and we're gonna heat it up until it's lightly smoking

and then cook the aromatics in there.

I'm adding about two teaspoons of cumin.

When you add whole spices to hot oil,

you really kind of have to watch it.

When you have onions and other aromatics in there,

it kind of acts as a supporting kind of a buffer

to make sure that your dry spices are not burning.

So the onions, we want to take them to the point

where the edges start to brown a little,

and that's gonna take a few minutes.

As the onions are cooking,

before you see the visual marker,

you will start to actually just smell the aromatics.

It'll smell more oniony, more garlicy and more gingery.

So if you are away from the stove

and you start smelling stuff,

like that's your cue to run.

Number one thing when you make an Indian style curry

is patience.

And it really pays off.

People get impatient and they won't take the masala

or the onions to the point you're supposed to.

And when you don't do that,

that's when, you know, curries will be bitter.

They won't have that like depth of flavor

that you're looking for.

So I think we're pretty much there.

And as you can see, some of the onions,

their edges are lightly brown,

and that's exactly what we're looking for.

This is our cue to add our dry ground spices.

I'm gonna add about two tablespoons of coriander.

You just wanna stir this around and toast the spices

until you start smelling them.

I'm also adding about 1 1/2 tablespoon of garam masala.

And garam masala is a blend of about 10 to 15 spices.

Cumin, cloves, black pepper, cardamom,

cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg.

A lot of people will have like their own

kind of like secret family like house blends.

And if you have time, totally make your own,

or else, I love this Everest brand.

I think it works pretty great.

I know people are gonna judge me

for not having my own homemade garam masala.

I do, at home.

Once you start doing the dry spices,

you want to work fairly quickly

because you don't want it burning.

This is the point we want to take it to.

So they look darker brown.

You can smell them,

which is a great indicator that this is ready to go.

I'm gonna add about a cup of tomato.

And now this is gonna cook

until the masala breaks.

You want the fat kind of separating from the masala.

And it's very, very important that you take this base

to that point again.

The minute it starts sticking to the bottom,

and there's like a very slight separation of oil.

If you see in this area,

you'll see some of the oil kind of like bubbling

to the side of the masala.

That's what I mean when I say I want the oil to separate.

And once this masala reaches

like a deep brown color like that,

you're ready to add your meat at this point.

Now that the masala has reached the point that we wanted to,

I'm gonna go ahead and add the lamb in there.

I'm using lamb in this case

because it's super close to the original dish,

which is made with mutton or goat.

Both of these meats are super gamey

and have a good amount of fat content.

Gonna season with a good amount of salt.

And we can taste it again towards the end

to make sure that it's seasoned properly.

I'm breaking the lamb apart into smaller chunks,

and then just mixing the masala into the meat.

That way all of those spices,

and caramelized onions, and the tomato

is mixing with the meat really well.

And we're gonna hit it with just a little bit of water.

So that's gonna speed up the cooking process,

and it's gonna give us a little bit of like a gravy

at the end.

A lot of times, I will kind of sear the meat.

In this recipe, you don't need to do that

because we added so much flavor by way of the whole spices,

the dry spices, the aromatics.

Which is why I think this recipe is great for a weeknight.

We're gonna cover and cook until the lamb is tender,

it's fully cooked,

all of the masala is fully incorporated into the meat,

and I'm gonna break it apart just a little bit more

towards the end.

Just to make sure that we are getting

that kind of keema texture.

So I'm using corn tortillas today,

but if you like flour better, go ahead and use those.

You could certainly do this in a pan.

I prefer a toasting my tortillas over direct heat.

Just because I think it adds like a nice char

on the outside.

You don't have to use any fat when you're doing that.

So I'm looking for the tortilla to kind of char

on the edges slightly.

It'll start to loosen up and get more kind of flaily

Is that a word? [laughs]

It's just a little bit more pliable.

It gives more structure.

If you don't toast the tortillas, it'll like break.

And like when you turn the taco like that,

like all of your filling is gonna fall.

We don't want that.

While you are toasting our tortillas,

this is what I'm looking for,

those sporty charred bits,

like the edges have charred quite a bit.

This means that the tortilla is like ready.

So I'm gonna just place it on here and cover it

to make sure that they steam and they remain soft.

Okay.

It looks amazing.

I think our lamb is pretty much fully cooked.

As you can see, there are no like pink

or translucent bits in here,

and that's a good indicator that the meat

has been fully cooked.

You're not trying to take it to the point

where it's rubbery.

You're trying to just like, just cook it

so the meat is still soft and tender.

Whatever meat you use in this recipe,

you want it to have just a little bit of fat.

You can see some pools forming here.

That are just so tasty, like fat is flavor

and if you don't have any of it, you know,

your keema is not gonna taste as good.

I'm gonna prep the rest of my stuff.

Fresh cilantro, mint, lime and sour cream.

So just gonna give the cilantro a rough chop

and same with mint.

So some of the tender stems are fine to use.

This is too thick. We don't want that.

Like, versus this,

that's like way more tender and, you know,

it's going to cook really fast in the hot keema

whereas this is just gonna be woody.

The sign of like a finished lamb keema

are these little pools of oil forming.

The meat looks like really brown.

But, you know, it's still super juicy, it's not dried out.

Hmm, I think it could do with just a little bit more salt.

As you can see, like one lime has like a thicker skin

and one has a super shiny skin.

So there's gonna be more juice in this one

as opposed to this one.

All you need to do is just roll them around

before you cut them and squeeze them.

That's gonna help kind of release some of the juices,

and it'll be easier to squeeze.

Okay, so we're gonna finish that off

with juice of half a lime,

and it's gonna cut through all of like

the fatty goodness of the lamb,

some of the spices and make it just a little bit

more acidic and fresh.

Our garnish is all ready, the keema is ready.

We've toasted our tortillas.

I think it's time to build.

Add a decent amount of keema right on your tortilla,

garnish with raw onions, lime wedges

and just a small dollop of sour cream.

So these are my lamb keema tacos. They're ready.

It's time to taste them.

Hmm. Oh my god!

These are so good.

The lamb is nice and juicy.

There's tons of layers of flavor from all of the spices

that we like slowly build starting from the aromatic,

then you hit it with some ground spices,

and then little bit of tomato

that just kind of like makes that jammy masala.

And then we finish off with some fresh mint,

some fresh cilantro and hit it with a little bit of acid,

kind of cut through all of that fatty deliciousness.

And as you can see that the tortilla

kind of like soaks up all of those juices,

and each bite is just an explosion of flavor.

I love this recipe so much.

If you haven't tried your hand at Indian food before,

I think this would be the recipe to kind of start off with.

Enjoy this delicious pools of fat around the taco.

I'm gonna finish this.