Curry for all Seasons!
Beef Durban Curry
Just as I thought autumn was here and we were in for some cold weather, the sun comes back out! Never mind, what I have cooked this week is great at anytime of the year. A Durban Curry, GEE, I can just remember those aromas drifting across the cars in the parking area of the Drive-In back in the old days when my folks took me to see a movie. This is where I first experienced the tradition of a Durbs Curry and Rice, we would park up the car and walk along to the food hut. Where we would queue, for what seemed hours, with that aromatic aroma making our stomachs ache until we got ours. We would then chow down enjoying that unique taste but not really appreciating how good it was, until you look back on it now. Perhaps it is though rose tinted glasses but we would then go and play for a while on the Jungle Gym before the movie started, what a shame my kids can not experience this now days.
For those of you who don't know, Durban Curries are very different to the curries that you have in the UK, they are light, aromatic and not cooked with much oil or ghee. We also eat them with a lot of fruit and salad sambals and a huge helping of Mrs Balls Chutney. A Durban Curry without Mrs Balls is just not acceptable and in some households and could cause a riot.
This is a very authentic curry as it uses dried spices to make the very distinctive flavour, its not a packed sauce as such as you will need to add a few extra ingredients but it is a very easy curry to make with this one shot pack. We have been selling these in our shop and I have made these curries many times before and believe me when I say they taste just like they did back home. I am making a beef one but you can use whatever you like, its great with lamb and even better with mutton. Chicken, seafood or even a vegetable one will also be just as good, so just choose whatever you fancy.
5 Free packs to be won
We have teamed up with Werners to promote these during September and you can get 10% off on our website with this code at the checkout SEPT12. Even better we are going to give away 5 sets of Werners Durban Curries and a bottle of Mrs Balls Original chutney to 5 lucky people who write a comment on this blog, see bottom of this article for details.
As I said this is very easy to make but there is a bit of preparation time needed to get this underway. You will have to prepare some rice and symbols to accompany this dish but I will leave that up to you guys to do.
Serves 4 People
Preparation time to chop ingredients 10 mins, cooking time at least 2hrs, the longer you can leave it to simmer the better. Even better make this the day before you want to eat it and just re-heat before serving, this gives the dried spices time to release the aromas throughout the dish.
Ingredients:
- 1 x pack of werners Curry spices, from Mild to Ex-Hot
- 500g Meat, cubed to bite size
- 2 x medium potatoes, peeled and chopped to 2-4 cm (I've added sweet potatoes as well)
- 3 x medium tomatoes chopped or tin if you're lazy like me
- 3 x large finely chopped Garlic cloves
- 2-3 tsp chopped fresh Ginger (i like a bit more personally)
- 1 x chopped red onion
- 1 x red pepper chopped
- Handful of chopper coriander leaves.
- Sambals of your choice, we had bananas, melon, onion, peppers, cucumber and tomatoes all chopped up.
Method:
- Put the meat into a bowl and add the dry Powdered Spices from the pack to the meat and stir with a wooden spoon until all the meat is coated and there is no loose power left. Place aside and leave to marinate for a short while.
- Add all the Non-Powdered spices to a tablespoon of olive / vegetable oil in a large saucepan or potjie (dutch Oven) over a medium heat and fry off the spices until the aromas from the spices start to smell wonderful.
- Add onions and peppers
- Add the meat and lightly brown for a few minutes. Sirt constantly to stop the meat from sticking
- Add the Garlic and Ginger
- Add the potatoes, tomatoes and then pour some water over the whole lot until it just covers all the ingredients .
- Leave to simmer for 1-3 hours at 200°C (400°F) if in a oven or on low heat if on a cooker plate, as i said the longer the better
- Depending on how you like your curry, simmer the water until it evaporates away to the thickness of gravy that you prefer.
All you need to do is sprinkle the chopped coriander onto the top of the curry and serve on a bed of rice and sambals on the side with some Mrs Ball Chutney.
5 lucky people will win a 4 pack of Werners Durban Curry and a bottle of Mrs Balls Chutney!
All you have to do is leave us some feed back in the comment area below, this is once again an inducement to leave feedback but I really would like to know if we are giving you what you want. So don't be shy, let everybody know what your thoughts are good or bad, I want to know. The lucky winners will be drawn at random by Friday next week and posted on here for all to see.