EMCO Day #11 : My Mum's Delicious Beef Curry

Today I am blowing trumpet on behalf on my mum hee..hee... because she would never boast. Not that I am the boastful type lah but when I think something is good, I say it as it is.

My mum used to cook beef curry only on special occasions like Chinese New Year. Or she may cook it once in a blue moon at other times. We all love my mum's goobak curry and when that is on the table, we will each have two helpings (or more) of rice.

My mum loves to pair this beef curry (or her chicken curry) with a large serving of coleslaw. All at home agree that coleslaw goes so well with curry. 

Cooking this beef curry is very similar to chicken curry. Again my mum's emphasis is onions, onions, onions. The more the better.

Well, I did not have enough onions that day, so all I could manage was approximately 600g. I am sure you may have come across a recipe Daging Sekilo Bawang Sekilo (1kg of beef 1 kg of onions) where you use equal weight of beef to onions.

The additional ingredients compared to chicken curry are lemongrass, fresh turmeric (can also use turmeric powder) and cumin seeds.

I forgot to add curry leaves in the above photo, so I did a re-shoot.

Ah, that's better. I have pandan leaves and curry leaves in my garden. So convenient! In fact I also have turmeric but that one is a bit leceh because I have to dig it from the ground. 

You also need dry whole spices.

First up, finely pound the garlic, ginger, turmeric and cumin seeds to form a paste.

Then as usual, slice and saute onions until wilted and translucent.

Add in the pounded ingredients. Saute for a little bit until onions are a little browned and add in the rest of the whole spices, pandan leaf, lemongrass and curry leaves.

Continue to saute until aromatic and then add in the curry paste (made by adding curry powder and water) and mix everything up together.

After that, add in beef and again, kacau, kacau, kacau.

To become like this.

Because beef takes a much longer time to cook, I just transfer everything into a slow cooker, add some water (enough to cover the ingredients) and let the slow cooker do its things for about 1.5 to 2 hours.

As usual, I cook the potatoes separately and add them in during the last half hour of cooking. Then at about the last 10 minutes of cooking, I add in some evaporated milk.

This is what comes out of the slow cooker at the end of it.

So good to eat with either plain rice or even better with Tomato Rice.

I cooked a batch of beef curry earlier, that one had more onions and I can attest that it had a edge over this one. So my recommended amount of onions to use for 1kg of beef is between 800g and 1kg. That may seem like a lot of onions but it cooks down and gives the curry thickness and yumminess.

This beef curry, like most curries can be kept frozen to be enjoyed later. Simply thaw and reheat and it tastes just as good as the day it was cooked.

So here is the recipe in case anyone is interested to try.

Beef Curry

Recipe source : My mum

Ingredients :

- 1 kg beef, cut into cubes

- 5 potatoes

- 800g to 1kg big red onions, thinly sliced

Pound into fine paste :

- 4 cloves garlic

- 1 thumb sized ginger

- 1 inch fresh turmeric (or use 1 tsp turmeric powder)

- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds

Whole spices :

- 4 cardamom

- 4 cloves

- 1 star anise

- 1" cinnamon stick

- 1.5 packets curry powder (I used Baba's, approximately 37.5g, mixed with water to form a runny paste)

- 2 sprigs curry leaves, use the leaves only

- 1 lemongrass, bruised

- 1 pandan leaf, knotted

- 200ml water (or more if required)

- 100ml evaporated milk

- salt to taste

- oil for frying

Method :

1. Heat enough oil in a pot and saute the onions until wilted and translucent.

2. Add pounded ingredients and continue to saute until the onions are slightly browned.

3. Add whole spices, pandan leaf, lemongrass and curry leaves. Saute until aromatic.

4. Add curry paste and stir to mix with the onions.

5. Add beef and stir to coat the meat with the fried ingredients.

6. Transfer to a slow cooker and add enough water to cover the ingredients. Set to high and cook for 1 to 1.5 hours until beef is tender (Or you could cook on the stove top, making sure to stir every now and then to prevent burning at the bottom of the pot)

7. Meanwhile, steam the potatoes for about 25 minutes. Then cut into quarters.

8. Check the beef and once it is almost tender, add the steamed potatoes and continue to cook for about 20-30 minutes or until beef and potatoes are tender.

9. Add evaporated milk bit by bit while stirring (to avoid curdling) and add salt to taste.