MAURICIA’S BEEF AND VEGETABLE CURRY
A warming and spicy curry that’s big-on-flavour using veggies you’d probably have in your kitchen anyway. It’s a recipe I created more than a year ago when I had a surplus of vegetables that needed to be used to prevent wastage. Carrots, sweet potatoes and spinach, cooked with red lentils and beef in a rich and deeply flavourful curry sauce.
The sauce is a combination of ingredients that normally form the base of some of the Indian or Cape Malay curries I love to cook. The usual onions, chillies, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, whole spices and a mixture of my favourite ground spices, my very own Masala Mix, if you like.
It’s a work in progress but there’s no denying the massive depth of flavour it gives to some of the curries I cook. It consists of a few of my must-have-pantry-staple spices. These spices are always available in my kitchen without fail. Some of the key spices used in this Masala Mix are listed in the Useful Tips section.
This curry is a slightly more complex dish to cook because of the amount of ingredients used and the level of attention required. You’ll regularly have to check the pot as well as add ingredients during different stages of cooking. It might be a fairly long recipe, but the warmth, rich complexity and comforting flavours of this curry is more than just reward.
- 125 ml (½ cup) red lentils
- 250 ml (1 cup) cold water
- 30 ml (2 tablespoons) cooking oil
- 2 large onions, finely diced
- 2 large stick cinnamon
- 8 whole cloves
- 8 allspice berries
- 8 cardamom pods, bruised
- 8 curry leaves
- 2 green chillies, deseeded and finely sliced
- 1 kg stewing beef
- thumb-sized fresh ginger, thinly sliced
- 10 ml (2 teaspoons) garlic, minced
- 2 large tomatoes, diced
- Mauricia’s Masala Mix, *refer to Useful Tips
- 4 large carrots, sliced in chunks
- 1 large sweet potato, sliced in chunks
- 200 g spinach, shredded
- 1.2 litre (5 cups) boiling water
- salt, to taste
Soak the red lentils in the cold water for an hour.
Heat the cooking oil in large pot on medium to high.
Add the onions and sauté until soft and golden brown, about 10 minutes.
Add the stick cinnamon, whole cloves, allspice berries, cardamom pods, curry leaves and green chillies and sauté for 5 minutes.
Now add the beef, ginger and garlic.
Cook until the meat starts to brown, about 20 minutes.
Add some of the boiling water, as and when needed.
Then add the tomatoes and cook for 15 minutes.
Add more boiling water, as and when needed.
Next add Mauricia’s Masala Mix, refer to the Useful Tips, and coat the meat well.
Reduce the heat to a simmer and season with salt.
Cook for a further 20 minutes, again adding some more boiling water, as and when needed.
Add the carrots and cook for 5 minutes.
Now add the red lentils with 250 ml (1 cup) of the boiling water and cook for 20 minutes.
Add the sweet potato and cook for 15 minutes.
Next add the spinach and cook until just wilted, about 10 minutes.
Add additional salt if needed.
Turn off the heat and serve warm.
Garnish:
Topped with natural yoghurt and fresh coriander
Serve:
With Mauricia’s Traditional Roti or freshly made naan breads
Useful Tips:
No need to pre-soak the red lentils before cooking. You can do this while starting the cooking. By the time the lentils need to be added to the pot an hour would have passed.
Mauricia’s Masala Mix is a combination of ground coriander, cumin, garam masala, leaf masala, curry powder, turmeric and chilli powder. Use these spices as you normally would in your curries or use a masala mix that contains some of these key ingredients. Experiment with these ground spices until you find the right combination that works for you and those you cook for. Remember, it’s all about intuitive cooking.
When adding the boiling water to the pot, remember to always add in small amounts at a time. Add only when needed to avoid burning of the ingredients and to create a deliciously fragrant curry sauce that’s not overly diluted with water. Use the boiling water quantity only as a guideline.
Remember, cooking time may vary. This will obviously differ from one cook to the next depending on factors like the heat setting of your stove, the type of stove you’re cooking on, etc. Use it only as a guideline.
Bon appétit
Recipe and photo: Mauricia Jordaan
