I made four kilos of beef curry.  It took most of the day to cook, but a little part of the day to prepare.  It warmed the kitchen while cozying you up inside with a fantastic aroma.  I used a recipe given to me by a friend and fellow beef eater.  It’s Peter Kuruvita’s Sri Lankan Beef Curry.  I’ve made it so many times that I have a few variations to reduce labor, pots, pans and availability of ingredients.

First, some beef.  I used the “beef bourguignon” cuts from our meat box.  I cut the chunks a bit smaller as I have young kids with cute, little teeth.  It’s easier for them this way.

 I marinate over night in all the spices and the ginger.  For a 1 kilo batch, the spices are:

• Sri Lankan Curry powder, 5 tsp
• ground cumin, 2 tsp
• ground coriander, 2tsp
• chili powder
• cloves, 8
• fenugreek seeds, 1 tsp
• cardamom pods, 4
• cinnamon sticks – crumbled, 2
• tumeric powder, 1tsp

Everyone gets acquainted in the fridge.

 When I’m ready to cook, I chop a pile of onions and a load of garlic.  That goes in “Big Red,” our big pot that rules them all.  The onions and garlic bubble gently in butter waiting for the meat.

 In a butter-lard fat mix, the beef gets colored.

 I don’t brown it.  There will be enough flavor with everything else joining the beef curry party.

 The meat goes in Big Red with the onions and garlic.

Then the tomato paste, a little can ( not the little, little can. The tall, little can ).  Add some pepper.

 Then some water.  It looks watery, but don’t worry.  After some patience, it will turn all curry like.

On this day, award winning food blogger Anneli Faiers from Delicieux was around picking up some beef and met Big Red.  She gave him a stir and a sniff.

 This is her “hungry face.”  I think the curry was progressing nicely.

 A few hours later, beef curry magic.  I cooled it down and stuck it in the fridge for further infusion.  Curry the next day always seems to taste better.

 Some chutney, some Substance P perhaps some creme fraiche … lovely.  I thought my four kilo beef blast would last and I could pull some out of the freezer when I felt like an easy “chuck it in the pot” day.  It went.  All of it.  I managed to freeze a bit for later, but later came so soon.  It’s beef day today, maybe I’ll pull out Big Red and do it all again.