Beef And Coconut Curry

I love a good curry!

With meat falling apart and a really flavourful sauce this curry doesn’t last long in our house. I make this quantity to ensure I have some leftovers to freeze in individual meal boxes with some rice or to use as a home made pie filling, it’s an Australian thing, we love our pies!

Although you might be put off by the quantity of ghee, don’t worry! Towards the end of cooking the fat all rises to the surface of the curry and I just spoon it off.

Serves 10-12 and freezes very well.

Ingredients

100g ghee

4 large tomatoes

1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped

6 garlic cloves, peeled

70g fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

3 onions, peeled and sliced

3 tablespoons ground cumin

3 tablespoons ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground fennel

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 pinch ground cloves

1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder

1.5kg beef, fat and sinew removed, diced

670mls coconut milk

400mls passatta, sieved tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

a pinch of saffron

salt and pepper

100g raw cashew nuts

fresh coriander to serve

Method

Heat half the ghee in a large oven proof pan, with a tight fitting lid,over a medium to high heat.

While the ghee heats, process the tomatoes, one onion, garlic, ginger and 200mls of water to make a paste.

Add this paste to the pan and bring it up to a gentle simmer, let the paste slowly reduce down until you have a thick, dark red paste left in the pan, this usually takes around 40 minutes.

Scrape the paste out of the pan and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Centigrade.

Add the remaining ghee to the pan and add the three sliced onions, cook the onions until soft and then add the cumin, coriander, fennel, ground cloves and chilli powder.

Stir well and cook for 1 minute.

Return the paste to the pan, heat through, stirring well.

Now add the beef and stir through regularly for a couple of minutes to allow it to seal a little.

Pour in the coconut milk, passatta and tomato paste and sprinkle over the saffron. Stir well and season with salt and pepper.

Cover with the lid and pop the pan in to the oven.

Bake for 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

Towards the end of cooking, spoon off the fat that will have risen to the surface.

Heat a frying pan over a high heat, add the cashews and dry fry until they are colouring up.

Pour the nuts not a chopping board to cool, once cool, very roughly chop them . Roughly chop a handful of fresh coriander, leaves and stalks.

To serve, sprinkle over the nuts and coriander.