Curried Meatballs with Lentils (shortcut version)

I hope you wouldn’t mind me sharing a curry recipe using pre-made curry paste. Today I was swamped with errands and unfortunately, the day has gone by without me realising.

Uhm, the truth is  my supposed “errands” were  I got sidetracked when I was on my way to get some groceries. And I have a good reason: there was a warehouse sale where all books were selling for AUD $5.00.  The first thing that came to my mind was “recipe books!!!”. So yeah, I was deeply absorbed into the sale frenzy without realising hours had passed.

Like many warehouse sales before this, the books were choatically placed and not organised according to genre. It took me a while to find some good books and an additional time to decide which books to give up. When everything was for $5.00, you tend to grab everything. 😛

In order to make up for lost time, I’ve used curry paste for my curry this time. Apart from hand mixing the meatballs, there was neither chopping of onion nor making the ginger-garlic paste. If you wish to cut down your cooking time even more, you can buy pre-made meatballs at the deli/butcher and make sure they are plain-flavoured or contain spices which will compliment your curry paste.

Curried Meatballs (shortcut version)

(A Fuss Free Cooking Recipe)

Serves 1 woman & 2 men

Ingredients:

700g ground beef

2 heaped tbps Indian Curry Paste

1 tbsp semolina/breadcrumbs

400g canned brown lentils, rinsed and washed

5 tbsps plain Greek yoghurt / cream (If you don’t like dairy product in your curry, you can add crushed tomatoes)

1/4 cup water

1/2 green chilli (optional)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Salt and sugar to taste

Black pepper

1 small thinly sliced shallot or 1/3 medium sized onions for garnish (optional)

A handful of chopped coriander for garnish (optional)

Method:

To make the meatballs:-

1. Preheat griller.

2. Knead ground beef, 1 tbsp curry paste, salt, pepper and semolina until pliable to form the meatballs.

3. Shape meatballs in the size of a walnut and placed them in a foil/parchment paper lined tray.

4. Cook meatballs under the griller for about 20 minutes, turning once during half time.

To make the curry:-

1. While the meatballs are cooking, heat a tbsp of oil in a pan (or a wok) with cumin seeds over medium flame.

2. When the seeds start to pop, add lentils and saute briefly. The oil will splatter a little when you add the lentils, so be careful!)

3. Add the remaning curry paste and saute to combine with the lentils.

4. Add yoghurt with 1/4 cup of water and simmer the sauce over low heat, until the meatballs are ready. (Add more water if the bottom starts to stick)

5. Add cooked meatballs and let the curry simmer for 10 minutes. Check the taste. Add salt and sugar according to your preference.

6. In the last minute of cooking time, add chopped coriander (if frozen coriander is used).

7. Garnish with coriander and fresh onion just before serving. Best serve with plain rice or turmeric rice.

Turmeric Rice

I have no doubt that plain rice goes very well with this curry, but a little touch up to plain ol’ rice will give the entire meal a very “restaurant” feel, no?  It is just a matter of adding some color to the rice using turmeric and a subtle hint of cardomon pods. Nothing over the top though.

I cooked about 2 cups of basmati rice with 3.75 cups of water using a rice cooker. Just before cooking, I’ve added 2 cardamon pods (crushed using the bottom of the rice cooker), 1.5 tbsps of turmeric powder, 0.5 cup frozen peas and a pinch of salt.

{Enjoy!}