Beef Mince Curry & Indian Fried Breads (Poori)

{Easy beef mince curry with fried breads}

It is a known fact that many of the white-collar workers are suffering from work related stress which can be physical or mental. It may be muscle pain, neck strain, migraines, Monday blues and etc. Right at this moment, I am suffering from Thursday syndrome which involves mental and physical exhaustion and excessive eagerness to finish my Friday off as quickly as possible. In effort to calm and revive my tired soul and body, I got to have my beef mince curry to jump start my drive. Using mince in replacement of diced meat saves a lot of my cooking time and personally, I reckon it tastes just as good.

{And yes, you see it right! There is a glistening layer of oil on my curry. Unfortunately, there is no room for “health regulations” when it comes to curry.}

Beef Mince Curry

(A fuss free cooking recipe)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 medium size onion chopped
• 2 small cardamon pods (slit with a knife or crush with a glass bottle)
• 1 tsp of cumin seeds
• 3 cloves of garlic & 1 inch of ginger (to make into a paste). Alternatively, you can use ginger and garlic paste from the jar (1 tsp:2 tsp ratio), no judgment!
• Mix 1 tsp of each turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder, chilli powder and garam masala with 2 tbsps of water (this is to prevent graininess in the gravy)
• 300g of mince beef
• 2 tbsps of tomato paste
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• 1/2 green chilli (cook as a whole)
• some chopped coriander for garnish

Method:

1. Fry the cumin seeds, cardomon pods and the chopped onions with 3 tbsps full of oil on medium heat. Cook till the onions become golden brown.

(To achieve that I cooked them as if I am cooking a steak, only turn the onions once or twice.)

2. Add the ginger garlic paste and spices (turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder, chilli powder & garam masala) to the onion mixture and fry till aromatic, over low heat. (If the spices to stick to the post, add a little water, say about 1 tbsp or so.)

3. Then add the remaining ingredients (mince beef, tomato paste, green chilli and frozen peas) into the spice mixture, stir to mix until well combine. Allow the ingredients to simmer on low heat.

(If the mixture starts to burn, add a little water to stop the burning. As there’s some moisture from the peas and mince, I did not add any water until the end of the cooking time.)

4. When the oil starts to separate (a layer of oil form on top of the gravy), I add about half a cup of water and season with salt and allow the curry to simmer for a further 10 mins.

5. Finally, garnish with chopped coriander before you serve.

Indian Fried Bread (Poori)

I had the curry with my homemade Indian Fried breads (aka poori) which I learned from a Maurition friend. This is probably as far as my ability can stretch when it comes to bread making. Plus, this is my favorite way of finishing up any flour leftover from my cake baking days. As I make this often enough, I would normally let my subconscious mind do all the work. Hence the lack of measurement. Essentially, I just add flour, salt, water and a bit of oil together and mix them till the mixture is kneadable. To give you a better picture of how to make this, I have found this easy recipe which sums up my process. Usually, the recipes you’ll find specify certain types of flour. I personally think it is safe to use any kind of flour that you have in your pantry. To create my signature style breads, I used self-raising flour as it will give a “fluffier” texture than the normal ones and I add some cumin seeds to echo the flavor of the curry.

{Ideally, it should be round shaped. Let’s conclude that irregular shaped poori is part of my signature style as well}

Minced Beef Curry