Hairy Bikers Beef Curry Recipe

Hairy Bikers beef curry is Mama’s Curry, the dish Renee cooked for her daughter’s birthday, with braising steak simmered in tomatoes, yoghurt and warm spices. As printed in Mums Still Know Best it serves 4, and I’d put each bowl at about 475 calories, ready in 2 hours 10 minutes.

As Si and Dave tell it, the smell of this curry makes Anjie Mosher feel “like she’s just had a big hug from her mum”. Yet no paste or jar goes into it, just ground and whole spices fried for 1 minute, “no longer”, before the beef goes back in.

The pan comes off the heat before the yoghurt goes in, I suspect because yoghurt stirred into a rolling boil can split. So I stir it through slowly off the heat, letting it loosen into the tomatoes before the pan goes back on for the long simmer.

Hairy Bikers Beef Curry Recipe

Author: Alex Saidani Cooking Method:Simmering Cuisine:British Indian Courses:Dinner

Difficulty:BeginnerPrep time: 15 minutesCook time:1 hour 55 minutesRest time: minutesTotal time:2 hours 10 minutesServings:4 servingsCalories:475 kcal Best Season:Summer

Description

Beef, onion and spices all start in one frying pan, then a long, quiet simmer on the hob or in the oven does the rest. When the beef breaks apart under a spoon, it’s ready.

Ingredients

For the curry

• 120ml ghee or vegetable oil
• 400g braising steak, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 200g canned tomatoes
• 125ml natural yoghurt
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• pinch of sugar

For the spices

• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• 3 cloves
• 3 cardamom pods (optional)
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Brown the beef: Heat a large, deep frying pan and add the ghee or oil. Brown the diced steak until sealed on all sides, then lift it out and set aside.
2. Soften the onion: Add the onion and garlic to the same pan and fry until soft but not browned.
3. Fry the spices: Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, black pepper, chilli powder, ginger, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon, then fry for 1 minute, no longer.
4. Add the tomatoes: Put the beef back in the pan with the tomatoes and bring to the boil, then take the pan off the heat.
5. Stir in the yoghurt: Off the heat, stir in the yoghurt and vinegar, then season with the salt and sugar.
6. Simmer until tender: Put the pan back on the heat and bring back to the boil, then simmer for at least 1½ hours until the beef is tender. While it simmers I keep a lid on, adding a splash of water if it starts to catch. Once it’s done, I fish out the whole cloves and cardamom pods.
7. Or use the oven: After step 5, pile everything into an ovenproof dish, which I cover with a lid or foil. Then cook it in a preheated oven at 190°C/Gas 5 for 2 hours or more.

FAQs

Can I make it as a slow cooker beef curry?

Renee’s recipe comes with a long hob simmer or a hot oven, and no slow cooker method at all. Since I haven’t tested it in one, I’d use the oven if you want to walk away from it. If you do try a slow cooker, brown everything first and expect a thinner, oilier sauce, since nothing cooks off under the lid.

For a slow-cooked beef curry with coconut, their slow-simmered beef rendang does its 3 hours on the hob with the lid off.

Who are Anjie and Renee?

Anjie Mosher is one of the mums Si and Dave met in Blackpool for the TV series, and she shared several of Renee’s recipes. But her friends always thought Anjie cooked those curries herself, though now, as Si and Dave put it, “the secret’s out”.

Renee had passed away four years before the book came out in 2011. And Mama’s Curry sits in Mums Still Know Best, published a year after the first Mums Know Best book.

Is 120ml of ghee really right?

Yes, that’s the amount printed, 120ml of ghee or vegetable oil, which is 8 tablespoons for 400g of beef. In my pan a layer of it rises to the top as the curry simmers, so I spoon some off before serving.

That ghee is about half the calories in each bowl, so skimming it is the easiest way to lighten the curry. For a diet beef curry, the Indonesian beef curry in Great Curries is 335 calories a portion, hot with bird’s-eye chillies.

What should I serve with it?

Renee’s own answer was sweet and sour potatoes, since Si and Dave say she always made them on her “legendary curry nights”. And they pair them with Mama’s Curry and the spiced cauliflower, which is fried in ghee with five spices before simmering tender. And Si and Dave warn the cauliflower is very hot, though Anjie’s fix for a milder dish is to halve the spices.

For a starter, their crisp onion bhajis from Great Curries are bound with egg as well as gram flour. As for the curry, I keep leftovers in the fridge for up to 2 days, or freeze them as Si and Dave suggest. Though after freezing, the yoghurt can leave the sauce a little grainy, so I stir it well as it reheats.

Which other Hairy Bikers beef curries are worth making?

For heat, the beef phall in Great Curries is “hot as Hades”, though deseeding the chillies takes it down to Madras-style heat. And for a proper Madras, their beef madras with split chillies drops two of its four chillies in whole. Or for something drier, their Keralan beef curry from Great Curries is cooked down with fennel and curry leaves.

For potatoes on top, the recipe in Our Family Favourites is a beef curry hotpot, crisped in a hot oven. As for Asian curries, their orange-scented Chinese beef curry braises beef shin, while the panang beef curry in Asian Adventure starts with a pounded paste. And if you’ve seen it called beef massaman, their Thai massaman curry is actually chicken, with potatoes and peanuts.