Beef roast

A beef roast was long overdue. The reason for delay being the time it took  me to get motivated enough to hunt for a place that sold good beef. And then, of course, the necessity to cook something that cannot be substituted with anything other than beef :D :D

Though I like beef roast and other forms of beef, am not very particular about it. The point is am not crazy enough about beef to take the time to go purchase it like I would do for vegetables and fish.

There are some really good stuffs to be made with beef and when I decided to make this beef roast for a few friends, it was just the excuse I needed :D :D

What I used

1. Beef: ½ kg
2. Diced shallots (10), ginger (1.5 inch), Garlic (6 cloves)
3. Roasted cloves (6) cardamom (6) and pepper corn (1 teaspoon), perumjeerakam - fennel seeds (1 teaspoon)
4. Salt to taste
5. Garam masala: 2 teaspoons
6. Meat masala: 2 tablespoons
7. Cinnamon powder: 1 teaspoon

In a mixer, grind all ingredients from points 2-4 and make a coarse paste. Then, in a pressure cooker, add the cleaned beef cut into small cubes along with the ground paste made above with the mentioned spice powders and cook till 4 whistles. The beef cooks in its own stock, so no need to add water unless you need gravy.

For the second phase, following ingredients are needed:

1. Coconut oil: 1/2 cup
2. Mustard seeds: 1 teaspoon
3. Curry leaves: 10 leaves
4. Grated onion (1), carrot (1), Capsicum (1)
5. Corriander leaves: a fistful
6. Salt and pepper: to taste

How I made it

1. In hot pan, splutter the mustard seeds and curry leaves in hot oil and sauté the vegetables with some salt and pepper. Capsicum, carrot and coriander are optional. I used it as I find adding vegetables reduces the heaviness of consuming beef.
2. Once the vegetables are half done, add the cooked beef with its stock and mix everything well. Adjust the masalas and salt as per need at this point and cook on medium flame till the stock reduces and the beef is dry. You can decide how dry you want and adjust accordingly. I cooked the beef with pan open to speed up the process of reduction. Once the stock is reduced or fully absorbed, turn off the fame and let it rest. You can see that the beef would have become a bit drier after resting.
   PS: for really crispy beef roast, continue the roasting till the beef turns black with occasional stirring. It might take 2 hours or so for it to turn this hard and black. It would be totally worth it and I must warn you it is very unhealthy but so god damn tasty that you should try it occasionally. Human body can handle the bad stuff once in a while ;D

A lot of alcoholic beverage fans find in beef roast the perfection of combination that renders their brand irresistible. While for the others, beef roast is a must have with appam, rice, chappathi, porotta, idiappam, you name it and beef goes with it all.

My personal combo is red rice, pulissery, achinga payar mezhukkupuratti and beef roast with some lime pickle.

That, my friends, is my perfect lunch!