You need a fair amount of the fresh mint and cilantro here so the meat really tastes both lemony and herbal. The ginger adds to the fresh, cleansing feeling. Serve with flatbreads or rice. For a snack, this ground meat, or keema, may be rolled up in flatbreads along with finely sliced shallots, chopped tomatoes, and, if you like, chopped fresh hot green chilies. Today, in the Western world, this would be called a “wrap.” As children we wrapped this keema in a chapati (a whole-wheat flatbread) and my mother called it a batta.

Ingredients

　　2 tablespoons olive or canola oil

　　Two 2-inch cinnamon sticks

　　1/4 cup chopped onion

　　1 pound ground lamb (not too fatty)

　　2 teaspoons very finely grated peeled fresh ginger

　　3/4 teaspoon salt

　　1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

　　1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint (just the leaves)

　　1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro (use the tops)

　　2 tablespoons lemon juice

　　3/4 teaspoon garam masala (homemade, page 285)

　　Pour the oil into a large frying pan and set over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the cinnamon sticks. Let them sizzle for a few seconds. Add the onions. Stir and fry until the onion pieces turn brown at the edges. Now add the lamb and ginger. Stir and fry for about 5 minutes, breaking up the chunks of meat as you do so. Add 1 cup water, the salt, and cayenne. Stir and bring to a simmer. Cover, turn heat to low, and simmer gently for 30–40 minutes or until the meat is tender. Add the mint, cilantro, lemon juice, and garam masala. Stir and cook uncovered on low heat for another 5 minutes, stirring now and then. Spoon out extra fat before serving.

　　Excerpted from At Home with Madhur Jaffrey: Simple, Delectable Dishes from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka by Madhur Jaffrey. Copyright © 2010 by Random House. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Buy the full book from Amazon.