Alo Qeema (Heritage Food)
Aloo qeema (some may prefer to call it qeema aloo), is simply one of the most loved Pakistani dishes, it is a staple meal of every Pakistani household, Aloo qeema is all round versatile, it can be reused in next day’s paratha filling for breakfast or sandwich fillings for lunch and even an easy pulao for next dinner. Aloo keema is a simple yet a versatile dish, which is easy to make with little ingredients found in one’s kitchen pantry. It can serve as special dish over a party, wedding, special occasions such as celebration feast or just a simple everyday dish. The great thing about this subcontinent’s hearty dish is it can be made in large amount and stored in freezer for up to 3 months, now you have readily available aloo qeema, just pop it out of freezer and reheat it. The thing about keema and vegetables is that it adds soft bite from the potatoes, best for kids and elderly if they are fussy about meat and the chewy elements from ground mince. There are many alternate varieties of this dish, such as qeema mutter, qeema gajer, sabzi qeema (combination of all three: carrot, peas, and potato), kerala qeema or piyaaz qeema therefore easy to alternate according to preference, or just cook plain version if none of the vegetables are desirable, since all options have similar cooking method and cooking time.
Aloo qeema is such a simple dish to cook it’s rather difficult to mess it up and cooked all year round. Although there are pre-packaged spice box are available it’s best to use whole spices for a richer and more authentic flavour. For this recipe fresh mince meat with machine, hand minced, or frozen will work however hand minced would be better as it yields more bite able and chewy meat, moreover you can use any type of mice meat: chicken, mutton, lamb or beef, will work fine as for potato you also use frozen or fresh, that includes other vegetables as well. For oil, you can use regular vegetable oil or clarified butter, but in case of red meat make sure to not add too much as it already has a lot of fat that melts down during cooking process. When you’re aloo keema is finally done, simply garnish it using coriandar and mint leaves, ginger in julienne cut and lemon slices. You can serve it with flat bread, paratha, naan or rice with some yoghurt.