Southern-Island Keema Curry with Okra and Summer Vegetables, Made with SN4

It calls itself a spice curry, but read the SN4 ingredient list from the top and the first thing you see is not a spice. It is dates. In other words, Spice Curry SN4 is a fruit curry blend generous with dates.

Twelve spices and two fruits. The caramel-like sweet aroma of dates forms the base, and behind it, the bitterness of cacao and black pepper tightens the finish. Sweetness comes first, then the whole thing draws taut. There is no chili in the blend, so it is not hot.

This sweetness pairs well with the fat of ground meat. On its own, though, it turns heavy, so the green bitterness of the peppers is placed opposite the sweetness. The okra goes in only for the last 3 minutes. Added earlier, it turns slimy and its green dulls.

The water is 100 ml instead of the standard 200 ml. Keema should stop at a thickness that clings to rice, so the liquid is held back from the start. The 15 minutes of browning the onion to amber is the most time-consuming step; once past it, the rest goes quickly.

Total time: about 60 min

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• SN4 / starter spices (whole-spice packet): 1 packet
• SN4 / powdered spices (powder packet): 1 packet
• Mixed ground pork and beef — 300 g
• Onion — 1
• Okra — 8 pods
• Green peppers — 3
• Garlic — 2 tsp (about 1–2 cloves)
• Ginger — 2 tsp (about 1–2 knobs)
• Canned tomatoes (whole) — one 400 g can
• Coconut milk — 3 tbsp (milk also works)
• Water — 100 ml
• Salt — 1 tsp
• Oil — 3 tbsp (use whatever oil you like; for this recipe we recommend rice bran oil or white sesame oil)

Preparation

1. Grate the garlic, then the ginger, in that order. If you don't have a grater, chop them finely.
2. Slice the onion thinly, across the grain.
3. Trim the tip of each okra stem and pare the ridge of the calyx all the way around. Sprinkle with a little salt, roll the pods on a cutting board to remove the fuzz, then rinse. Pat dry and cut diagonally into 2 cm pieces. Leftover water thins the sauce and leads to a watery finish.
4. Remove the stems and seeds from the green peppers and cut into 1 cm squares.
5. The dates and cherries in the starter-spice (whole-spice) packet blend into the curry more easily if chopped finely.

Instructions

1. Put the 3 tbsp of oil in a pot over low heat, add the grated garlic and ginger, and cook for about 30 seconds.
2. Once fragrant, add the onion and the 1 tsp of salt, mix well, then turn the heat to high and cook for about 15 minutes, adding small splashes of water as you go, until the onion turns amber.

   How far you take the onion changes the finished dish more than anything else. "It came out watery." "The tomato tastes too sharp." "It lacks depth." The single biggest cause of all three is moving on to the next step before the onion has turned amber. Cook it for a full 12 to 15 minutes, until it is properly amber.
   The points are:
   - keep the heat at medium-high to high
   - spread the onion evenly across the pot and leave it, then stir; spread evenly again and leave it, then stir — and repeat
   - whenever you feel it catching on the bottom as you stir, add a small splash of water (from experience: about 2 tbsp of water each time, five times on average)
   The splashes of water carry the savoriness the onion releases as it cooks through the whole pot, and keep it from burning on its way to amber. Letting it catch just enough to need a splash of water is, in fact, exactly what draws out the flavor best.

3. Once the onion is amber, turn the heat to medium, add the SN4 starter spices (whole-spice packet) and fry briefly.
4. Add the 300 g of ground meat and cook for about 5 minutes, breaking it up with a wooden spatula, until it changes color and the moisture cooks off. Driving off the moisture here is what sets the keema's thickness.
5. Add all of the powdered spices and fold them in, as if cooking the powder itself through.
6. Push the ingredients to one side, add the canned tomatoes, crush the whole tomatoes thoroughly, then mix everything together.
7. Add the green peppers, the 100 ml of water and the 3 tbsp of coconut milk. Once it comes to a boil, simmer uncovered over low heat for about 12 minutes.
8. Add the okra and simmer over low heat for about 3 minutes. Cooked too long, it turns slimy and its color dulls, so turn off the heat while the green is still bright.
9. Taste at the end and adjust the salt. Adding salt a pinch at a time until the seasoning is where you like it is the key to a delicious finish.

Cassia (bark) is not usually eaten, so remove it if you come across it.

Inspice Spice Curry spice sets contain no chili, cayenne pepper or chili powder — the usual main sources of heat — so adjust the spiciness to your liking and enjoy.