BEEF CURRY

Since childhood, I have been more of a fish-lover than a meat-lover. Quite often, my mom would have to force me into having meat. I realized, why it was so important for my mom to feed me meat, soon after I started living on my own. Due to a lack of supervision, within one month I ended up being severely anemic. In Bangladesh, a major amount of iron intake comes from beef. And as my intake dropped, it led to anemia right away. Don't get me wrong, I did have a high intake of iron from vegetables. But our body absorbs heme iron more than non-heme iron. In simple words, iron from meat are more easily retained in the body than iron from vegetables. And to retain iron from vegetables, it is necessary to have a steady source of vitamin C for the body which obviously I didn't know and ended up being anemic. Since then, I started working on a proper diet while keeping my Bangladeshi taste-buds satisfied. My first step was to eat a lot of red meat including beef, chicken liver etc. In order to do so, I had to learn how to cook meat at the first place. After a lot of trial and errors, I have finally mastered the skill =P. 

Here goes the recipe and I hope you like it.

First off, I add oil and cumin seeds to a heated pot. As soon as the seeds started to release its aroma, I add in the onion and green chili. While waiting for the onions to turn golden brown, I add the meat to a mixing bowl along with all the spices, garlic-ginger, and salt and mix it really well. Once the onions are ready, the marinated meat goes in right away. I put on the lid and cook it in high heat till the meat lets out the water. When that happens, I add in a little water to prevent sticking to the pot and lower the heat. Usually, my mom cooked meat in pressure cooker but since I don't have one, I have to let the meat stay on heat for a long time (about 2 hours) for thorough cooking. My first confusion was what if my meat gets too dry but my mom often used this phrase "গরুর মাংশ যত জ্বালাবে ততো মজা" meaning the more you cook your beef, the tastier it is.

Ingredients: 1.5 pound      beef with bone (preferably meat around the rib area) 0.5 cup          chopped onions 2 pcs              green chili

0.5 tsp whole cumin seeds

1 tbsp canola oil

(In the mixing bowl)

1.5 tsp salt

1 tsp              minced garlic 3 tsp              garlic paste 1 tsp              turmeric powder 1 tsp              red chili powder 1 tsp              cumin powder 1 tsp              coriander powder

0.5 tsp mixed spices (ground cloves, cardamon, cinnamon, black pepper)

In a plate, add a generous amount of the curry sided with steamed rice or roti (flat breads) and voila! delicious beef curry is ready to be served.