Community lunch recipes: Sri Lankan red beef curry

spices for your curry blend….

In the colder weather there is nothing so nice as a rich curry to eat for your dinner! And if you find yourself with the time during lockdown to make a curry from scratch, this is a great one to try. It is full of flavour and worth the effort. My husband’s family is Indian and they ask us to make this for them when they visit us.

It is a recipe that I have interpreted from the Thermomix Basic cookbook. You start with a spice mix that you dry roast and then grind to a powder. But you can skip this part if you have a garam masala blend in your pantry already.

Spice Mix

• 30g coriander seeds

• 30g cumin seeds

• 2 tsp fennel seeds

• 40g long grain rice

• 10 cardamon pods

• 5 whole cloves

• 2 sprigs fresh curry leaves only

• one cinnamon quill

Dry roast all these ingredients together in a frying pan, cool and then grind them to a fine powder. You can keep this in an airtight container to use again and again.

Now to get started on the curry.

Curry Blend

• 6 cardamon pods

• 1 cinnamon quill

• 1 tsp ground fenugreek

• 12 whole cloves

• 1 tsp peppercorns

• 1 brown onion

• 4 garlic cloves

• 20g fresh ginger

• 1 stalk lemongrass (white part only)

• 2 long red chillies (deseeded)

Dry roast cardamon pods, cinnamon quill, ground fenugreek, whole cloves and peppercorns. Allow to cool and then blend in a blender. Add the brown onion, garlic cloves, fresh ginger, fresh lemongrass and long red chillies and blend to a paste.

And the rest

• 50 g olive oil or ghee

• 1 tsp tumeric

• 12 fresh curry leaves *

• 400 g canned chopped tomato

• 1.2kg gravy beef cut into pieces

• 400g canned coconut cream

• 2 tsp salt and

• 2 tbsp vinegar.

Melt the ghee or warm the olive oil in a heavy based saucepan. Add 2 tsp spice mix (garam masala), along with ground tumeric, fresh curry leaves and the curry blend. Saute together for a few minutes.

Add chopped tomatoes, gravy beef, coconut cream, salt and vinegar and cook together, stirring occasionally. Then simmer covered until the oil separates, the meat is cooked and tender, and the sauce has cooked down.

Serve with rice (look out for our coming post on jewelled rice - to make your rice extra fancy).

* Fresh curry leaves are usually available from Asian grocers or some of the good fresh veggie shops.