# Kheema methi **Chef:** Divya **Cookbook:** Dalit Kitchens of Marathwada **Potluck Date:** March 29, 2025 --- ## Recipe Methi is cooked with mutton, with the meat either in pieces (methi-mutton) or as mince (kheema-methi). Ingredients Mutton in pieces with/without bone Oil Methi Green chillies in small pieces or red chilli powder If available Ginger-garlic paste Coriander leaves, finely chopped Method Boil the mutton with the ginger-garlic paste, coriander leaves and a little salt till the meat is soft. There should be enough water to make a stock that will form the gravy. Keep aside. Add oil to a pan and heat it up. Add green chillies or red chilli powder, immediately followed by methi leaves. Mix well. Add the boiled mutton and stock. Once the methi is cooked, serve it with jowar bhakri. Recipe 4 Prepare kheema-methi using the recipe above for methi-mutton. Options You can also add methi directly to the cooked mutton and soup. Add red chilli powder. Let it cook till the methi is tender. Methi cooked in mutton soup also tastes delicious. There is no need to add extra salt in this as it is already added while boiling the mutton. Note: Do not add yesur or peanut crush as they overpower the distinctive flavour of methi cooked with meat. Cleaning and cutting methi using one’s nails and fingers, is a tedious task. Once that is done, it’s an easy and quick recipe that tastes excellent. It is also over-exploited in a totally different way (other than cooking or eating) by grooms during wedding ceremonies when they are supposed to ‘speak aloud the name of their brides’. This ceremony is popular in Marathi weddings where the bride and the groom have to speak out the name of their partner, weaving it in rhymes. Brides are usually very creative and enthusiastic and they come up with fresh, unused lines. Lazy grooms, however, use the same old verse, which says: ‘Methi the tastiest veggie ever —— is my loving wife forever.’ Shepu (dill) It is such a unique vegetable that people either love it or cannot stand it at all. It is made in a dry form when cooked as an independent vegetable. But when more ingredients are added, a porridge-like mixture of this vegetable tastes excellent as well. Recipe 1 Ingredients Shepu, roughly chopped Oil Green chillies Peanut crush Salt Method Wash, drain, clean and chop the shepu. Heat a little oil in a pan or tava. Add small pieces of green chillies, coarsely broken using one’s fingernails. Once the pieces start spluttering, add the shepu. Mix well. Lower the heat. Add coarsely crushed garlic, peanut crush and salt. Mix. Splash a little water into the mixture, cover and let it simmer over low heat. Mix well before serving. Note: Some people add red chilli powder in addition to green chillies. Some add green chilli paste, and others skip the peanuts. The vegetable tastes outstanding in all these variants. Recipe 2 Ingredients Mung dal (or toor or daalga) Green chillies Shepu, roughly chopped Garlic, crushed Salt Peanut crush Method Soak mung dal before cooking. In a pan or tava, heat the oil. Add green chillies, coarsely broken using one’s fingernails, and dal. Then add the shepu. Add crushed garlic cloves, salt and, if available, peanut crush. Add very little water, just enough to cook the dal. Cover and cook on low heat. The vegetable should not turn watery. Serve. Note: Some people dry roast the mung before using. This changes the taste, giving it a smoky flavour. Recipe 3 This is the same recipe as above but prepared with fresh mung beans. They do not need to be soaked. Here, too, the mung is cooked adding just enough water. Recipe 4 Dill, like methi, is cooked with mutton pieces (shepu-mutton) and with mince (shepu-kheema). Follow the recipe of methi-mutton and kheema-methi. You can use meat with bones or boneless, whatever is available. Ingredients Mutton in pieces with/without bone Ginger-garlic paste Coriander leaves Salt Oil Green chillies, broken into small pieces Shepu, chopped Method Boil the mutton with the ginger-garlic paste, coriander leaves and a little salt till the meat is soft. Add oil to a pan and heat it up. Add the green chillies, immediately followed by the shepu. Mix well. Add the boiled mutton and very little stock. When the shepu is cooked, serve the dish with jowar bhakri. Tip: This recipe tastes good with green chillies and that too only in the dry form. Do not use yesur, peanut crush, dals, red chilli powder, etc. Chuka (green sorrel) Chuka (Rumex acetosa or green sorrel) is a sour leafy vegetable. Chuka has many other meanings in Marathi. Chuka means mistakes. Small nails used for footwear are called chuka. If a stitch in a garment is loose, it is also known as chuka. Some people call it ‘ambat chuka’ meaning ‘sour chuka’. Chuka is always sour so why this tautology? In villages, chuka is rarely cooked by itself. It is always combined with some other ingredient. Chuka is delicate like hagarya ghol. Clean, chop and then wash it. Washing after chopping reduces the strong acidic taste. Recipe 1 Ingredients Chana, mung or toor dal Chuka, chopped and washed Garlic, crushed and some chopped for the tempering Red chilli powder Salt Peanut crush Jowar flour Oil If available Turmeric powder Coriander leaves Method Add the dal to boiling water. When the dal is slightly cooked, add the chopped and washed chuka into it. Add the crushed garlic cloves. When the dal is fully cooked, add the red chilli powder, salt, peanut crush and jowar flour. Mix well. Add turmeric powder and coriander leaves, if available. Cook for five minutes on low heat. Heat the oil in a small pan, add chopped garlic and fry it till golden. Pour this tempering into the dal. Recipe 2 Similar to the above recipe, the only change being that in step 4, replace red chilli powder with coarsely crushed green chillies or small pieces of green chillies. Recipe 3 Chuka was cooked with mutton, as were other greens described before. Ingredients Chuka, chopped and washed Mutton in pieces Salt Ginger-garlic paste Coriander leaves Oil Red chilli powder or green chillies torn into small pieces Method Boil the mutton with the salt, ginger-garlic paste and coriander leaves till the meat is soft. There should be enough water to make a stock that will form the gravy. Keep aside. Boil the chopped and washed chuka in a little water. Heat a little oil in a pan. Add red chilli powder or small pieces of green chilli. Mix in the boiled chuka. Add the cooked mutton and soup. Let it come to a boil. Lower heat and simmer a few minutes. Serve. Recipe 4 This is another way to cook chuka with mutton. Ingredients Mutton in pieces Salt Ginger-garlic paste Coriander leaves Chuka, chopped and washed Red chilli powder or green chillies torn into small pieces Method Boil the mutton with salt, ginger-garlic paste and coriander leaves till the meat is soft. There should be enough water to make a stock for soup. Keep aside. Strain the soup into another pot and keep the meat pieces aside to use elsewhere. Boil the chuka in the mutton soup. Add the red chilli powder or small pieces of green chillies. Boil till the chuka is cooked. Serve the soup. Note: Salt is already added while cooking the mutton, so no extra salt is needed in the vegetable. Similarly, ginger-garlic paste and coriander have already been added. So only red chilli powder or green chillies need to be added. Do not add yesur, peanut crush or other spices that can kill the unique flavour of mutton and chuka. Shepu-chuka (dill and sorrel greens) This curry is regularly prepared and relished in villages. The proportion of chuka is lower than that of shepu. A mixture of these two vegetables used to be available in the weekly markets. There are five original recipes for making this combination. The shepu-chuka mixed vegetable curry tastes delicious in any form. The ingredients needed for it are the same and listed under the first basic recipe. Recipe 1 Ingredients Shepu Chuka Toor dal or mung dal Garlic cloves, crushed Red chilli powder or small pieces of green chillies Peanut crush Salt Optional Jowar flour Coria --- *Downloaded from BCBCBath Cookbook Club* *https://bcbcbath.com*