The toasted note and crunch of pistachio, meeting a creamy spice sauce 🍛.
SPICE CURRY SPICE PACK (Spice Curry Spice Pack Symphony No.1 / SN1) — a creamy pistachio keema.
Pistachios have a satisfying bite and a deep flavour, and they are nutritious enough to be called a superfood. We wanted a plate you could eat by the spoonful, saying “this is good” to each other over a pile of pistachios — so we wrote this recipe.
It is surprisingly simple and easy. The savoury depth of the pork mince and cheese, and the texture of the potato, both do good work here 😋
Ingredients (serves 4)
- SN1 / starter spices (the whole-spice sachet): 1 sachet
- SN1 / powder spices (the ground-spice sachet): 1 sachet
- Onion: 1/2
- Potato: 1
- Pistachios: 70g
- Garlic: about 1–2 cloves (sliced)
- Pork mince: 200g
- Double cream: 100ml
- Milk: 100ml
- Grated hard cheese: 30g
- Salt: 1 tsp
- Olive oil: 3 tbsp
Preparation
- Slice the garlic.
- Chop the onion finely.
- Chop the potato into 1cm dice.
- Splitting the cardamom in the starter spices (the whole-spice sachet) lengthways with scissors or a knife lifts the aroma
Preparing the pistachios
- If the pistachios are still in their shells, shell them.
- Toast them in a frying pan until they smell toasted.
- Blitz them, or crush them roughly with a rolling pin.
| The thin skin on a pistachio is full of nutrients, so we recommend using them as they are. Keeping a few whole for decoration is worth doing too — they look good on the plate. |
About the poached egg on top
- For how to make a poached egg, see here.
| 💡For this recipe we put a poached egg on top of the keema over rice. It looks generous and appetising, but you can leave it out entirely. Personally I found the keema and pistachio came through more honestly without it — but if you like eggs, the mildness of the yolk changes the flavour considerably, so it is worth trying 🤗 |
Method
- Put the “olive oil: 3 tbsp” into a pan, add the “starter spices (the whole-spice sachet)”, and set it over a low heat.
- When the mustard seeds start to crackle, add the sliced “garlic”.
- Once the garlic smells good, add the “onion”, stir it in, then turn the heat to medium and cook for about 5 minutes, until it turns translucent.
There is a lot of olive oil here, so you should not need much water, but if it looks as though it might catch, add a splash of water and keep cooking gently.
- Add the “potato”, fry for about 2 minutes, then add the “pork mince: 200g” and the “salt: 1 tsp” and fry.
- When the meat is nearly cooked, add half of the powder spices and fry them in.
Cooking the powder spices through properly is the point here.
- Once the powder spices have cooked and settled into everything, turn the heat down low and add the double cream: 100ml, milk: 100ml, grated hard cheese: 30g and the pistachios.
- When it starts to bubble, add the remaining half of the “powder spices” and stir it in.
- Adjust the salt and it is done.
If you want more heat, sprinkle over some chilli powder or black pepper once it is plated 🌶
About the grated hard cheese 🧀 used in this recipe
We used Grana Padano, which is widely used in Italian kitchens. It really does taste markedly different from Parmesan. Parmigiano is a little expensive, and in our house Grana Padano is just right for everyday use 🧀
| Inspice spice curry spice sets contain none of the usual sources of heat — chilli, cayenne pepper or chilli powder — so please add heat to your own taste. |
