It might not seemed as an extreme case in America, but beef in Taiwan can be much more expensive compare to other red meat options. Like you can really feel the price gap there. Good thing is that I'm more of a pork, poultry, and fish person when it comes to home-cooking.
So it's kind of a rare occasion that I cook beef at home. If that's the case, might as well go a little bit beyond when choosing the ingredient. As good as wagyu sounds, but it doesn't really work that well with my curry recipe here. Sirloin would do, price is still just about acceptable and the fat versus lean meat proportion should be great for curry.
The best part is that the frozen sirloin steak was on sale. Buy one get one free, totaling 900 grams of beef, perfect.
Curry beef using curry powder and turmeric powder -
Ingredients?
- 900 grams sirloin steak (or other part of beef)
- 1 purple onion
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon potato starch
- Some extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 tablespoons curry powder
- 1 tablespoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
- Some potato starch and water mixture (optional)
How?
Trim-off excess fat from the beef you're using. I'm using sirloin steaks here, and it's ok to leave a bit of fat close to the lean meat. In fact, that little fat will make the whole curry even more delicious.
Transfer beef to a bowl and add in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon of potato starch, and 1 tea of extra virgin olive oil. Massage and marinate the beef for at least 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel and slice the onion to wedges. Destem and remove the piths and seeds for both the green and red bell peppers.
Bring out a wok or a big pot, drizzle 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (regular olive oil will do) and switch to medium high heat. Once warmed up, add in the beef and give it a quick stir-fry. About 70% cooked-through, scoop out for later use.
Still using the same wok or pot, drizzle more oil if needed. Still using medium high heat too. Add in the onion and cook till the onion pieces get a nice golden brown char on some parts.
Add in 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds along with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper. Stir-fry for one more minute.
Add in all the bell peppers and continue to cook for couple minutes.
Add 3 tablespoons of curry powder and 1 tablespoon of turmeric powder. Give it a quick mix under the same heat for 30 seconds, be careful not to burn the spices. Pour in 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock.
Bring to a boil then lower the heat to keep the whole thing at a medium bubbling stage. Keep cooking for 5 to 8 minutes.
Towards the end, add back the semi-cooked beef. Give it a few swirls to make sure everything has been evenly blended to the curry sauce. Cook for about a minute.
Check on the consistency. If too watery then you might need to lower the heat and mix in some potato starch and water mixture. However, I didn't use any this time, everything looked perfect to me. Do a final flavor test and adjust with salt if needed. Curry beef should be done by now.
It's proven that frozen steak can be a good alternative when buying beef, especially beef that might require a big stir-frying or short braising time. Especially for the sirloin steaks I got, the meat was still tender and packed with enough beefy aroma.
Other curry-related recipes:
- Summer vegetable curry
- Kuku paka coconut chicken curry
- Curry flavored beeho0n/rice vermicelli stir-fry 咖哩炒米粉
- Tomato curry and chorizo spaghettini 番茄咖哩義大利麵
