Coconut Beef and Sweet Potato Curry

Missing ingredient definitely spinach! Lovely wilted in at the end, it wasn’t on my shopping list…I’m useless without a compete list! That said I did have a couple of handfuls of sugar snap peas left, so in they went.

 
It really doesn’t take very long and then the curry just merrily cooks away in your slow cooker/thermal cooker/ stove top or in the oven.  (Our slow cooker works off of our 12v through the inverter, many people I know have a “thermal cooker” usually a metal pan which you place all ingredients in, bring to the boil, place in its thermal casing and it carries on cooking for several hours).

Finely chop a large onion, grate 2 cloves of garlic and a knob of fresh finger – follow your taste buds on the ginger. Deseed and finely chop a red chilli or two.  I found this curly thin curry leaf in Malta so chopped a tbsp up, hard to find and definitely optional. 

Spices:

1tsp of curry powder, ground cumin, ground coriander, hot chilli powder, ground cinnamon and black pepper. 3 cloves and 1 star anise, whole.  Confession, I didn’t have the last 2 so used a tbsp of curry paste to boost the flavour.

 Meat and potatoes:

Used 450g of beef shin, diced and 2 small sweet potatoes, also diced.

Then a can (400ml) of coconut milk.

  
Fry the onions, garlic and chilli in a little oil for a few minutes until softened. Add the curry leaves (if using) and the spices then gently fry, stirring all the time.

 
Add the beef, sear. Then add the potatoes and continue cooking for a few minutes.  Stir well to combine.

  

Pour the coconut milk in, stir well, scraping the pan as you go to get all the spice blend mixed in.  Transfer into saucepan, slow cooker, thermal cooker,oven and gently simmer for 3 hours.

 You want the meat meltingly tender, the potatoes soft but with a little bite, the sauce fragrant, spicy, creamy and as comforting as a lazy weekend supper. Does that make sense to you?

If, like me, you prefer a thicker sauce just bring the pan to the boil for a few minutes. At this point I threw the sugar snap peas in, if you have spinach, reduce the sauce first and just stir the spinach in at the end.

Cauliflower rice skeptic? Try it once at least,  the gentle stir frying and addition of a generous knob of butter is nuttily delicious. If you didn’t know what you were eating, seriously, you’d be asking the cook what grain it was. That’s tried and tested several times, hysterical reaction when you say it’s cauliflower! (Pretend you’re blending half the casserole veggies into a sauce and allowing children to still believe they’re not eating “yucky” carrots 🙂 )  that last comment will be understood by parents everywhere… I should tag my eldest here, she still hides carrots under mash if she can.. 
(Looks like rice, certainly doesn’t smell or taste like cauliflower when stir fried – shhhh, don’t tell them unless they ask!) 

 Serve with cauliflower rice and extra veg or salad, pickles etc as you see fit.  Obviously otherwise basmati, naan, etc. 

truly hope you like this, if so could I trouble you to leave a comment on the site? Much appreciated in advance:-)

2 Replies to "Coconut Beef and Sweet Potato Curry"

  • comment-avatar
    Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor September 8, 2015 (1:58 pm)

    This looks delicious – I love a good curry. I’m not a big fan of sweet potatoes, but I imagine I could substitute regular potatoes instead?

    • comment-avatar
      admin September 8, 2015 (9:16 pm)

      Absolutely use preferably small new potatoes as they won’t break down into mush, add to curry and simmer away. Thank you for the comment 🙂

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