Kerala Beef Fry

The meat is pressure-cooked soft first and then roasted dry in the spices.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef.

Ingredients

• 800 g beef, in 3 cm cubes
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 2 teaspoons black pepper, coarsely ground
• 2 teaspoons ground red chilli
• 2 onions, sliced
• 12 shallots, sliced
• a 4 cm piece of ginger, chopped
• 8 cloves garlic, chopped
• 80 g coconut, in thin slivers
• 30 curry leaves
• 5 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Method

1. THE MEAT IS PRESSURE-COOKED SOFT FIRST AND THEN ROASTED DRY IN THE SPICES. Its article gives both halves and the order matters more than anything else in the dish: the meat is USUALLY COOKED IN A PRESSURE COOKER TO SOFTEN IT BEFORE IT IS SLOW ROASTED in the mixture of spices, TILL IT REACHES A DRY CONSISTENCY. Beef roasted from raw would be leather by the time it dried; beef boiled and then dressed would be wet. Soft first, dry second, and the second stage is where the whole character comes from.
2. THE PRESSURE COOKING IS DONE WITH THE SPICES, NOT IN WATER. Turmeric, coriander, pepper and chilli with the meat and a splash of water. Whatever liquid is left is cooked off in the next stage.
3. THE ROASTING IS LONG, LOW AND BARELY STIRRED. Twenty-five to thirty minutes in the coconut oil, turned every few minutes, until the pieces have gone dark and dry and catch slightly.
4. THE COCONUT GOES IN AS SLIVERS, NOT GRATED. Its article says SLIVERS OF COCONUT, FRIED IN COCONUT OIL. Thin slices that go brown and chewy; grated coconut would burn to powder in a dish cooked this dry.
5. THEY ARE FRIED SEPARATELY AND ADDED NEAR THE END. With the curry leaves. Its article names both together.
6. THIRTY CURRY LEAVES IS NOT A MISPRINT. In a dish with no gravy, they are a main flavour rather than a garnish.
7. SHALLOTS AND ONIONS BOTH, WHICH ITS ARTICLE LISTS SEPARATELY. Onions, SHALLOTS, ginger and garlic. Shallots are sweeter and hold their shape in the roasting.
8. THE PEPPER IS COARSE AND THERE IS A LOT. Two teaspoons cracked. In Kerala cooking the pepper usually does more of the work than the chilli.
9. IT IS EATEN WITH A FLATBREAD, WHICH ITS ARTICLE NAMES. Kerala porotta -- and in one town, it notes, with pazham pori, a fried plantain fritter.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes