Can anyone give me some ideas for a beef curry.

I bought 1kg of excellent beef today at the supemarket

I was going to make Mamtas Beef Madras but living in Spain it is nearly impossible to get some of the ingredients like curry leaves.

Unless Mamta or the experts can tell me what to cahnge.

I can get simple Indian spices here but not the exotic stuff.

Hope someone can help as the Madras curry looks really good.

Well Hirta, you can leave out the curry leaves. It will then be missing only one of the south Indian flavoures-curry leaves. Or, you can make most curries that have I have given for lamb. Hindu Indians don't usually eat beef, that is why there are so few curry dishes specific to beef.

How about making the Lamb Rogan Josh with beef?

http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10471

At least you should be able to get plenty of reasonably priced saffron in Spain!

Winton

Mamta, I made a mistake about not having the spices.

My houskeeper and I went to the Iceland store a few miles away in another town and we have all the spices and dried curry leaves. Barts spices from Iceland. I did not realise that I had them all. So I can make your beef Madras. I will add some fresh sliced tomatoes to it. We have some wondeful tomatoes at this time of year in Andalucia. Post office red and perfect.

Winston, yes saffron is cheap to buy here not the fake stuff but the real stuff.

If I can remember you can get a packet of say 20grms for about ?2.00 if my memory serves me right. The Rogan Josh I will try also.

So thanks for your ideas.

Hi Hirta,

If you are going to use your beef for a madras curry, try Mamta's Chicken Saffron Curry later. It really is delicious!

http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10010

Winton

changing meats in a good recipe is not without problems, because of the spicing and/or the tenderness of the different cuts of meat.

'Beef' in India, apart from Kerala, is in fact water buffalo, and 'mutton' is goat. So when looking at a genuine Indian recipe, it needs a bit of thought if translating to western lamb!

If you want to use a long cooking time method, the tougher parts of the animal are best, so don't use 'best beef' for these type of dishes. The tender cuts tend to be less flavoured, as well, so can easily be masked by spicing (which is probably aimed at lamb/mutton anyway!)

I myself have never understood the attraction of the 'donor kebab.' That great big slab of reformed meat from dubious sources rotating on its spit for how many hours, days, weeks; and cooled down and then reheated again (and again!)

I enjoy the occasional shish kebab where you can choose your own skewer of meat and veg before it is grilled in front of you, but I'm afraid Donor kebab no thank you!

Winton

Dona, Donor, Donar, Donna, Dorna - Kebab, Kebob, Kebop, Kabob, Kabop and all its other spellings I've seen are made in different ways depending on who is making them.

There is a minced meat type which uses plenty of fat to keep it moist and give it flavour (you will find a lot of other meat products use similar scraps of meat/fat mush to make them - pies, sausages, burgers, patties and I'd guess at many Indian and Pakistani minced meat dishes made on the cheap for mass production etc)

There are however better "Kebabs" favoured in Greece and Turkey where you build up layers of meat, fat,minced meat and herbs etc one after the other onto an upright skewer.

It like anything else you buy, you have to shop carefully.... it might say 100% fresh farm lamb on something you are buying, doesn't mean it hasn't been frozen for a month since it was fresh, or doesn't mean that the 100% fresh meat hasn't been mixed with 2 month old rusk and other bits ...

Steve

Sorry, that last 'guest' post was from me, I forgot to log in! I am using my husbands computer!

Mamta,

I did your beef curry last night, it came out perfectly.

It does exactly as it says on the tin !!

In Spain it is a problem for all foreign people to get anything resembling home, the Spanish just dont like it.

I lived in Tooting for 15 years and yes I do miss the Indian shops there, you get everything Indian.

But thats all we have, I think I am grateful that we have an Iceland store 20 miles up the road, If not then no Indian spices at all.

So thanks for your recipe, I think that is how real Indians eat at home.

But I did put 3 spoons of chilli powder in it to give it a kick.

I will try more of your recipes, and thanks last year for your advice about the mango chutney, turned out great as well.

Keep up the good work.

I'm sure your lamb dishes turn out perfectly cooked (goes into grovelling mode). My point was/is that the original recipes from India deal with much tougher meat, even desi chicken is tougher, though with more flavour!

I found it difficult to find lamb in Bagalore, there were charts in supermarkets showing cuts of lamb, but no actual lamb!

So my point is that if one follows Indian recipes that were intended for desi meat, and use Western meat/cuts, then cooking times will have to be shortened, and spicing reduced, as the volatile flavours don't escape into the kitchen as much.

Yes, absolutely agree, if you have an old Indian cookery book from India, you have to reduce cooking time for modern meats. In all honesty, I only note down cooking times when I am writing a recipe. Rest of the time, I go by how it looks/ feels when touched or tested/tasted by my husband. Cheaper meats also make excellent curries, there is no denying, especially if you slow or pressure cook them.

it's what hubbies are for, that and putting out the rubbish.............