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A variant on kheema

My mother swears by a kheema recipe she found in a 1980s cookbook - I modified it the other night, and present it to you thus:

Kheema with turkey and spinach

Ingredients

•  300 g ground or diced turkey
• 2 tbs canola oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbs fresh ginger, diced
• 2 tsp ground cumin (I prefer to buy whole cumin, toast it in a cast iron pan until browned, then crushed in a mortar. It tastes a million times better than what you get in stores)
• 1 tbs coriander seeds, crushed
• 1/2 tsp chili flakes
• 1-1/2 cups hot water
• 1 cup frozen peas
• handful of baby spinach, shredded
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbs garam masala
• Juice of half a lemon

Steps toward delicious

1. In a cast iron pan or heavy wok over medium-high heat, heat 1 tbs of oil. Drop in the turkey and cook until it it just cooked. Be sure to break up the turkey as it cooks.
2. Remove the turkey from the pan, tamp out the moisture. Add the rest of the oil to the same pan, then add the onion. Cook until the onion is soft.
3. Add the garlic and ginger. Cook until the onion is browned.
4. Add the cumin and coriander and chili flakes. Stir stir. You may decide to add more oil at this point, but it's up to you. Turkey can be a lean meat.
5. Add the turkey, giving it a stir to coat everything with spicy goodness. Then it's time to add 3/4 cup hot water (I use water just off the boil from the kettle). Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-high, cover, and cook for 20 minutes.
6. Remove cover. Stir it up. At this point, the mix should still be plenty moist.Add the salt, garam masala, lemon juice, and remaining water. Stir, re-cover, cook for another 10 minutes.
7. Uncover. Taste. You may decide to add more salt at this point.
8. Add the peas and the spinach. Crank the heat up to high, stirring constantly. At this point, you want to accomplish three things: heat up the peas (already cooked in the freezing process), cook the spinach out, and get rid of the rest of the water.
9. When that's all done, serve over rice or quinoa.

Most recipes call for ground lamb or beef, but I prefer poultry myself. It's even better the next day.