Dry Chilli Beef Curry- South Indian Style

Do not try this at home- Unless you are really fond of hot and spicy stuff. This one is an adaptation of a dish I normally eat at my local coffee shop the evenings when I am too tired to cook or just want to save money and eat out on less than OMR 1. Decoding recipe from memory, this one was not exactly the way they made it, but good enough (It's fun when you eat something outside and can come home and recreate a very similar flavour- Feel half like Sherlock Holmes and half like a Michellin chef).


Ingredients (Serves 4):

• Beef cubes- 500 gm, chopped small
• Curry leaves- 3 tbsp
• Red onion- 2 large; chopped fine
• Ginger/Garlic paste- 3 tbsp
• Pepper- 4 tbsp crushed
• Green Chilli- 3 large; chopped finely
• Cayenne- 1 tbsp
• Green coriander- 2 tbsp
• Coconut flakes- 4 tbsp
• Garam Masala- 2 tbsp
• Olive oil

Preparation (Marination: Overnight + Cooking Time:30 mins):

Clean beef and marinate overnight  with half tbsp of garam masala.












Heat 3 tbsp olive oil to high in a pan and add beef pieces. Add half the crushed pepper, a little salt and cook on high till fat leaves the sides and the meat is juicy and browned nicely.

 Remove beef from flame and fry onions on high with 1 tbsp oil. Once onions start turing white, add ginger garlic paste and curry leaves. Keep stirring on high till curry leaves start releasing their aroma.

 

Bring down the temperature, add remaining pepper, meat, 1 tsp turmeric powder, cayenne, remaining garam masala, coconut flakes. Cover and cook for 15 mins.

 

Stir in chopped green coriander and turn off the heat. Cover and let stew in own juices for 10 mins.

Serve hot with rice, Kerala Parotta's or Appam's. Mmmmm


Tips:

• Now, we are lucky to have supplies of Indian spices and herbs in the Middle East. Therefore, curry leaves are a no-brainer. However, if you can't find curry leaves you could still go ahead.While the fragrant aroma of curry leaves do give it a distinct South India taste, the curry's still good to go without them
• Garam Masala- the ubiquitous Indian spice. If you can't get your hands on it from your local store, here's an easy recipe from All Recipe's.
• The final ingredient, coconut flakes. Best is if you could use freshly grated coconut. If you can't use either fresh coconut or coconut powder like I did, you could substitute by adding a couple of tbsp's of coconut milk slightly later during cooking.