Dinner and a Movie from Bollywood Kitchen

Flavor

Breathtaking visuals and lavish musical numbers are the hallmark of this period melodrama. It’s a feast for the eyes, and like any good Indian meal—you will not leave hungry.

Recipe

Based on the 1917 novel of the same name, Devdas tells the story of a young man (Devdas) and the girl next door (Paro) who’s deeply in love with him. But Devdas only sees her as a childhood friend. By the time he realizes his true feelings, it’s too late, as Paro’s parents have arranged for her to marry another man.

Despondent, Devdas becomes a recluse, drowning his sorrows in booze and living in a brothel. There he meets a ravishing courtesan (Chandramukhi), who becomes devoted to him. But Devdas only has eyes for Paro, the one who got away. The tragic love triangle comes to a climactic end as Devdas descends into an alcoholic spiral.

The Dish

Let’s make one thing clear—Devdas is not a breezy film. With melodramatic acting and a running time of three hours, Devdas is synonymous with everything that’s over the top about Bollywood. But that’s exactly why I love it. Devdas is a visual spectacle. The director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, is a brand name in Bollywood, known for his operatic style. Nothing tops Devdas in terms of gorgeous sets, opulent costumes, and stylized cinematography. Watching the movie feels like seeing a series of lush oil paintings come to life. And the musical numbers are to die for, re-created time and again at every Indian wedding from Mumbai to Mississippi.

Keema (Sublime Ground Beef Curry) from Bollywood Kitchen

Serves 4 to 6

With a movie as luxurious and classic as Devdas, you need a meal to match. This is, hands down, my mom’s most popular dish, beloved by everyone who has tasted it. It also is a textbook example of American assimilation. Traditionally, the recipe calls for mutton because beef is rarely eaten in India. But when my mom moved to the States, she adapted the dish using hamburger meat to create something that feels familiar and comforting to us as Americans, while at the same time exotic and exciting with its full-bodied flavors.

The mark of good keema is that the ground beef is dry when serving. Occasionally, you may encounter keema in a restaurant that’s soaked in tomato gravy, but that’s because the chef didn’t cook the meat for long enough. If you tend to keema carefully, increasing and decreasing the heat in the final stages, you’ll be able to cook off the mois¬ture and be left with crumbles of meat intensely flavored with garlic, ginger, and cloves.

Devdas is perhaps the most iconic film in this book, and I’ve chosen to serve this meal with it because this recipe is the one that I’m most proud to share with you. It will always remind me of my mom, an expression of her understated gifts as a cook—and a testament to how great Indian-American cuisine can be.

Directions

Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the ground beef and sprinkle with the turmeric. Crumble the meat with a wooden spoon and cook to render its fat, 7 to 9 minutes. Remove the meat using a slotted spoon or fine-mesh strainer, allowing the fat to stay in the pan. Set the meat aside.

Discard the grease and wipe the pan dry. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the bay leaves and allow them to begin infusing the oil, about 15 seconds. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until golden brown, about 7 minutes, reducing the heat to medium if necessary to prevent the onions from burning.

Add the garlic and ginger pastes and cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes. Then add the chilli powder, salt, cloves, and cinnamon. Stir the spices into the onions, allowing them to 'bloom' (release their oils and flavor) for another minute.

Stir in the tomato to create a thick paste. Cover and simmer until the tomato has completely broken down, 5 to 7 minutes. The sauce should start to 'come together'—you’ll notice the oil separating and the sauce pulling away slightly from the sides of the pan.

Return the meat to the pan. Stir well, coating the meat with the spicy tomato sauce. Cook over medium heat for 7 minutes.

Add the coriander. Continue to cook, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes, using a fork to crumble the meat until it is dry and granular.

Remove the bay leaves and add the cilantro. Finish with a squeeze of lemon. Adjust the salt and seasonings to taste. Serve with rice. Keema always tastes better when made a day or two ahead.

Tip

If you overdid it with the spices, just add a tablespoon of ground, unsweetened coconut to lessen the intensity.