I’m rather obsessed with chicken pakora, so when it came to designing a lamb themed meal I wanted to try the spicy batter approach. Once I decided keema meatballs was the way to go, research suggested proper keema is best made with mutton. Clearly you could make this with lamb mince too but the result here was wonderfully rich and voted the highlight of my “Lamb Four Ways” dish. It really was mutton dressed as lamb!
 

Step 1 - the Mutton Keema

• Heat the oil in a non-stick pan and add all the whole spices, frying until fragrant.

• Add the onion and brown over a low heat, before stirring in the garlic, ginger and chopped chilli.

• After a couple of minutes add the ground spices and raise the heat a little.

• Add the yoghurt and stir until it starts to separate. Add the mutton and the split chilli, cooking until the meat juices appear.

• At this point add the flour and cook on a low heat for around 30 minutes. It should thicken up nicely. Add the fresh coriander and once cooled a bit, roll into rough balls.

Step 2 - the Pakora

• Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, then gradually add water, stirring to form a batter the consistency of double cream.

• Heat a deep pan of vegetable oil (to a depth twice that of your balls) to 180 C.
  Top Tip: you can use a deep fryer but the oil will take on some flavour after so you may want to decant and save for the next time!

• Dip the keema balls in the batter to coat them and carefully drop them into the oil. Don’t deep fry too many at once. They may break up a little but this adds to their swirly shape and the batter will keep it all sealed.

• Drain on kitchen paper. Top Tip: you can serve immediately or keep them up to 48 hours in the fridge and reheat in the oven for 10 minutes at 200 C.

Delicious one their own with a raita dip or as below served as part of a lamb dish, here topped with sliced radish and coriander shoots.

 Ingredients

• 1 tsp vegetable oil

• 6 Black peppercorns

• 2 Cardamom pods, crushed

• 1 tsp coriander seeds

• 1-2 cm piece of cinnamon stick

• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds

• 1 red onion, finely chopped

• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

• 1 cm piece of root ginger, grated

• 2 fresh green chillies, one finely chopped, one split lengthways

• 1/2 tsp ground coriander

• 1/2 tsp ground cumin

• 1 tbsp thick yoghurt

• 250g minced mutton

• 1/2 tsp cornflour

• 2 sprigs fresh coriander, finely chopped

• 150g chickpea flour

• 1 tbsp rice flour

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 pinch bicarbonate of soda

• 2 tsp ground cumin

• 2 tsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp chilli powder

• 1 tsp hot paprika

• ~200ml water