MANJULA’S BEEF & COCONUT CURRY

Manjula Samarasinghe is a dear friend of ours from Sri Lanka: her cooking is wonderful. When we tasted her food, we booked our next family holiday to her country and asked if she would come too. We ended up staying with her family, cooking from dawn to dusk while our boys played ‘cricket’ together with palm fronds. This recipe works equally well with chicken or king prawns; adjust the cooking time accordingly. You can make larger quantities of the paste as it freezes well, so you can whip up a curry in no time after the initial prep.

PER SERVING 5.3g carbs, 1.4g fibre, 56g protein, 31g fat, 529g kcal

Serves 6

For the paste

20g coriander seeds

1tsp cumin seeds

1tsp fennel seeds

¼tsp fenugreek seeds

¼tsp black mustard seed

½-1tsp freshly ground black pepper

6 curry leaves (see tip right, optional)

2 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and

finely chopped

1tsp salt

10g fresh root ginger, finely chopped

1 medium brown or red onion, finely

chopped

2tbsp coconut or extra-virgin olive oil

For the curry

900g skirt or stewing beef, cut into

bite-sized pieces

400g tin of full-fat coconut milk

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Coconut sambal (see recipe to the right) and cauliflower rice (see page 50), to serve

A small handful of fresh coriander

leaves, to garnish Toast all the spices in a dry frying pan over a low heat for 5 minutes, until they just start to brown. Cool them on a piece of kitchen roll, then fold it and tip the spices into a spice grinder and blitz to a powder. Then transfer to a pestle and mortar. (If you don’t have a spice grinder, do it all in the pestle and mortar.) Add the garlic, salt, ginger, onion and oil then grind again to form a paste. (This can also be done in a small food processor.)

Heat the spice paste in a large saucepan, stirring over a medium heat for a few minutes until it darkens. Add the beef and stir through, letting it fry for 5 minutes, until brown all over. Pour the coconut milk in and simmer very gently with the lid on for 2-2½ hours until the meat is cooked through. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Let the curry cool a little and settle then use a metal spoon to skim off and discard any excess of fat. Serve in warm bowls with the sambal, cauliflower rice and a sprinkling of coriander.