<\/a>Without fail, beef curry is one of those things I crave when I get homesick for my mom’s cooking. A lot of it is because it is comfort food for me, but some of it is also because I still haven’t quite got the hang of it. If it’s not the gravy consistency, then it’s the cooking time. And of course you always want what you can’t have, right?<\/p>\n

Well, I think I have gotten closer and closer to my goal.<\/p>\n

This sounds very obsessive of me, but I have made beef curry 3 times in one week, and I think I’ve got my spice combo down pat. Evidence of this is that leftovers don’t last long when I do make it.<\/p>\n

Here is what I’ve come up with so far. I actually wrote down the measurements when I made it today so that I’d have something to compare to next time I make it.<\/p>\n

Beef Curry<\/span><\/p>\n

1 large onion, finely sliced
2 tbsp oil<\/p>\n

1 cinnamon stick
3 bay leaves
6 green cardamom pods
4 cloves
8 peppercorns<\/p>\n

3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger paste
2 serrano chilis<\/p>\n

2 lb boneless beef (stewing beef preferred), soaked in water and rinsed.
1 lb potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks<\/p>\n

2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp combo cayenne, paprika, or chili powder
1\/4-1\/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt (adjust to your taste)
2 tsp lemon juice
enough water to make a thick spice paste<\/p>\n

garam masala
dried fenugreek (methi) leaves<\/p>\n

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the onion slices and sautee until they soften and start to turn brown.<\/p>\n

Add the whole spices, cook about 30 seconds to 1 minute.<\/p>\n

Add the ginger, garlic, and chili pepper. Cook for a couple minutes.<\/p>\n

Add the beef pieces, making sure to combine thoroughly. Try to brown the pieces, but either way, cook a few minutes.<\/p>\n

Add the spice paste, try to get all the beef coated. Cook a couple more minutes.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Bring the heat up to high, add 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, cover, lower heat and simmer for 1 hour. Periodically stir and make sure nothing is sticking to bottom of pan.<\/p>\n

After about an hour, add the potato pieces and stir to combine. Add a bit more water if needed and cover and cook 30 more minutes, or until beef and potatoes are tender.<\/p>\n

When beef and potatoes are tender, add a pinch of garam masala and dried fenugreek leaves. Add more water if you like a thinner gravy. Cook 5-10 more minutes, then taste for salt and adjust accordingly.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Note — as far as cooking time, haven’t quite gotten that down pat. It’s ranged from 1.5 hours to over 2. The first two times, I used stewing beef from Publix’s organic meat section. The meat was falling-apart tender after 1.5 hours. Today, I decided to try halal boneless beef from the Indian store. Let’s just say it’s been 2 hours and there are still quite a few stubborn chunks that refuse to become tender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without fail, beef curry is one of those things I crave when I get homesick for my mom’s cooking. A lot of it is because it is comfort food for me, but some of it is also because I still haven’t quite got the hang of it. If it’s not the gravy consistency, then it’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,19,17,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.spicesbites.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.spicesbites.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.spicesbites.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.spicesbites.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.spicesbites.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.spicesbites.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.spicesbites.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.spicesbites.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.spicesbites.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}