Slow Cooked Beetroot and Beef Curry

This may be a day late, although I’m sure it is still Friday in some part of the world, but this dish is in aid of Fiesta Friday #9. You can visit The Novice Gardener‘s blog to see all the lovely and exciting dishes that have been brought to the party today and the last eight Fridays.

But for this week, I just LOVE beetroot. I love it’s colour, taste and texture and how versatile it is. All week I have been munching on salads for lunch and in every salad has been beetroot, without fail. And then I come home and make a curry with beetroot. I know I know, this is a lot of beetroot and I don’t have an explanation for my current love of beetroot but it just tastes so good and is so pretty!

I have been promising my father a beetroot soup for almost two years now. I have made a few but it just so happens he hadn’t been around for them and now I am making beef and beetroot curries and again, he isn’t here. Once my father sees this post, am sure I will get a phone call about how unfair this is and a request for both soups and curries for his next visit.

SLOW COOKED BEETROOT AND BEEF CURRY

( CHUKANDAR GOSHT )

I came across this dish on the BBC Good Food website. It is fruity, tender, earthy and has just the right balance of spice.  This dish is great as it makes enough for two nights dinners  and it also freezes really well.

• 3-4 olive oil
• 3 green cardamom pods
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 2 medium red onions, sliced
• 1 tsp grated garlic
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 450g stewing beef, cut into 2½ cm chunks
• 350g raw beetroot, grated
• 100 ml water

To serve

• handful of coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 green chilli, sliced
• lime wedge

THE HOW

Pre heat your oven to 200 °c  (mine is a fan oven). Cut, measure and chop all your ingredients and have them ready to go.

Using a large, non-stick lidded casserole dish, heat the oil over a medium flame, add brown the beef on all sides. Remove the beef and set aside. Add a little drizzle more oil and add the cardamom, cinnamon, cumin and coriander. Once the spices start to sizzle, add the onions and stir-fry until light golden brown.

Add the garlic and ginger, and cook for 1 min until it no longer smells raw. Add a splash of water if the garlic and ginger start to stick to the pan, then add the tomatoes and cook until soft. Add  salt (1 tsp), the red chilli powder and the braised beef, cover loosely and continue to cook on medium heat and cook for about 10 mins.

Turn up the heat and add the grated beetroots. Stir-fry for a few mins, add the water then cover the pan, and transfer to the oven for an hour and a half to two hours or until the meat is tender. Stir from time to time and add a little more water if the curry becomes dry.

The finished dish should be a thick mushy curry with chunky, tender beef pieces and softened beetroots. Sprinkle with the coriander leaves and green chilli; add a squeeze of lime, and serve with naan or rice (it is also very good with mashed potato).