Beef Curry for Four

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  You will need:

  
  

  • 900 g Shin of beef
  • 3 whole large tomatoes or half a tin of chopped and peeled tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp of vegetable / groundnut oil
  • 2 Large onions 
  • 2 Large garlic cloves
  • 2 tbsp of ground cumin
  • 2 tbsp of garam masala
  • 2 tbsp of ground coriander  
  • Chilli flakes (enough to make it as spicy as you want)
  • 500 ml of good beef stock
  • 1 tbsp of whole grain-mustard 
  • Chopped coriander
  • Yoghurt for serving
  • -optional- two very nice beers one whilst cooking, another for enjoying with your curry

  
  

  How to cook it:

  1. Cross the bottom of the tomatoes and place them in boiling water for 20-30 seconds. Take them out and put them in ice water. Finally peel, de-seed and chop (or alternatively use ½ a tin of chopped tomatoes).
  2. Add the chili flakes to the beef, season well then fry off the beef in batches in a very hot pan - the oil should be so hot it starts to smoke - Do not overcrowd the pan. Let me explain why frying in batches is so important! -Explanation- Adding lots of meat lowers the temperature of the pan, if the temperature falls below 120 oC the “caramelisation” or more properly termed maillard reaction cannot occur. Instead of frying, water gets ejected from the meat making it grey-brown. It is import for the meat to go golden brown because this is FLAVOUR; this browning is the creation of flavour molecules that will enhance your final dish. 
  3. Quickly fry the onions in the same pan until they go golden. Add in chopped garlic, fry for a further 2 minutes and finally add the spices and fry for a further 1 minute.
  4. Add the beef back to the pan (and all the juice), the chopped tomatoes and stock. Season and stir it all up.  
  5. Bring to a simmer, lid on and cook until the beef is tender, which for me took 2 hours but depending on your beef this could be up to 3.5 hours.
  6. Once tender throw in the mustard, chopped coriander and stir. Taste, checking for seasoning, adjust to personal preference then add the yoghurt on top when serving. While not essential the yoghurt does make the dish pretty special.  

  
  -Served with rice and home-made “nan breads” (recipe coming soon…)-