‘Cos everyone needs a curry at least once during lockdown! For this one I have teamed up with my mates at Silver Fern Farms to create a super-easy slow-cooked beef curry, using their delicious Beef Brisket.
I don’t know what it is about curries – they just seem like the ultimate, tasty, belly-filling delicious answer to the lockdown blues. I’ve made this one pretty flexible, given trips to the supermarket can be such a drag at the moment. You just need a basic paste to begin with – mine has onion, chilli, garlic and ginger which make a damn fine start, then its just a matter of adding a selection of spices, beautiful beef and coconut milk…then walk away and let time do it’s thang. Start it cooking at lunchtime and the house will be filled with enticing smells all afternoon. By evening, your beef will be meltingly tender, enveloped in a rich, as fiery as you like it, curry ‘gravy’, ready to serve up with rice, flatbreads, and a few steamed beans (if you have them…which I didn’t).
This is what Pog and I will be having for dinner tonight, and I can’t wait – I have been so hanging out for a grunty curry! Not much more of an update here – stuck in our bubble, working away…I have done none of the things I’m sure everyone else is doing, no podcasts or pantry clean outs, no new fitness regime or hours on Facebook…just beavering away ‘at work’, but I reckon it’s going to be worth it. I’m so bloody proud of the latest issue of dish, and I reckon we can make the next one even better. Thank God Pog and Hoob have been so patient with my living room work space takeover! Right back to it…see you again soon.
serves 2-3
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 red chilli, roughly chopped (or 2 if you’re a total hot-head)
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large thumb ginger, peeled and roughly
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon garam masala (or hot curry powder)
1 teaspoon turmeric (or not…)
1 teaspoon cumin (non-negotiable)
1 teaspoon coriander
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 pack Silver Fern Farms Beef Brisket, cut into 5cm chunks
400mls coconut milk
1/2 tsp black nigella or sesame seeds (optional!)
fresh coriander to serve
Pop the onion, chilli, garlic and ginger in a small food processor and whiz to a paste. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan (with a lid) add the onion paste, season well with salt and pepper, and cook the onion paste for 5 minutes. Add the beef, spices and lime leaves and stir to combine. Add the coconut milk, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to very low – a slow simmer, cover with the lid…and walk away for three hours. If you can. After three hours, remove the lid, and continue cooking for another hour. You’ll probably also want to stir it every now and again so that as it cooks you can taste it’s deliciousness. That is it my friends – it will be ready to serve sprinkled with seeds and topped with coriander, with rice, flatbreads and beans…and tastes even better the next day if you can bear to refrigerate it overnight!
What could you use instead of brisket?
Hi Paula – stewing steak like cross cut blade steak would also work well 🙂
I have lamb eye fillet would that take less time
Yes it would – but you won’t get the same kind of result as lamb fillet doesn’t have the same amount of fat and connective tissue, which is what breaks down and makes the meat very tender. Lamb eye fillet is much better suited to a quick-cook 🙂
Hi Sarah, great recipe…can it be slow-cooked in the oven and if so, what temperature and timing would be appropriate please?
Hi Carmen, I haven’t tested this specific recipe that way, but I would say yes – covered for 3 hours at 170˚C, then 1 hour uncovered 🙂 Let me know how you go!
What’s the weight of the Silver Farms beef brisket pack please?
Crazy to think how it was three years ago now!
do you think i could use beef cheeks?