Today we have an old Uni friend of Rich's coming to stay. We are going to have an early dinner before the boys head out for a drink.
As their staple diet at uni was curry I thought I would bring back a few memories with one of my favorites. This recipe serves eight so I know the boys will apprecaite the leftovers when they get home from the pub.
I watched a friend make it a few years ago and was so excited when I tasted it, it was delicious. The first thing I did when I got home was scribble down all the ingredients and I have cooked it every few weeks since ... if you like curry then I would urge you to give it a go ...
BEEF & CHICKPEA CURRY - Serves 8
Ingredients
2 Medium onions, 1/2 Jar Pataks Madras Paste, 2 x 400ml Tins of coconut milk, 2 x 400g Tins of Chickpeas in water, 500 ml Vegetable stock, 800g Chuck Steak, 260g Young spinach leaves , 25g of chopped fresh coriander
- Place a large saucepan on a medium heat. Add the onions with some olive oil and cook for a couple of minutes.
- When the onions are soft add the beef to the pan and stir until all the beef is browned this should take a couple of minutes.
- Stir the curry paste into the beef. Cook for a minute, stirring continuously so that all of the beef is covered in the paste
- Pour in the coconut milk and stock. Once the mixture is almost boiling, turn the heat down low and let the curry slowly simmer for about 2 hours.
- Stir the curry every 20 minutes when it is simmering
- After two hours of simmering taste the meat to check it is tender. If it is then you can move to the next stage. If it is not then carry on cooking the curry slowly until the meat is very tender and starting to fall apart
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add them to the curry, simmer the curry for another 30 minutes to cook the chickpeas. At this point I tend to lay the table and start cooking the rice
- After 30 minutes stir in the spinach leaves and half the coriander. You will need to stir the spinach continuously for about a minute so that it all cooks. Don’t be alarmed if it looks like far to much spinach it wilt into the dish.
- As soon as the spinach has wilted, remove the curry from the heat and place in serving bowl, sprinkle over the rest of the coriander and place on table with the cooked rice
Cooking notes
If you are worried about cooking rice I have written a post called Basmati Rice which you will find under grains and pulses in the recipe tab.
I use half of a Jar of curry paste as I like this quite spicy, if you are not keen on hot curries use less paste and vice versa for strong curry fans.
The key to this recipe is tender beef. To get beef tender you need to keep cooking it. All meat is slightly different so if it is not tender in the time shown then keep cooking it, it will tenderize
I have called my steak, chuck steak, as this is what my butcher calls the meat taken from the shoulders of the cow. I had a chat with him when i bought it as I get confused by all the different names for slow cooking beef ... stewing, braising, chuck.
He confirmed that each butcher tends to have their own name, so ask for steak cut from the top of the cow, between where the neck ends and the rib eye begins ... put your hand on the bottom of your neck between your shoulder blades ... that area on the cow.
If you live in london then take a trip to the parsons nose and they will be able to provide you with some of their chuck steak www.parsonsnose.co.uk
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