Author: Mary Anne

It’s so nice that Kevin can cook — I asked him yesterday if he’d make a Sri Lankan beef curry for me, and he did. He doesn’t even need a recipe at this point.

It’s not exactly like mine or my mother’s, but close enough. Finished off the green beans from a few days ago, fresh rice, delicious and comforting.

I was thinking I’d put the 30 days of Vegan Serendib on hold until my foot was better, since standing and cooking isn’t really so feasible right now, but maybe I’ll just ask Kevin to make the dishes for me. Cabbage mallung is supposed to be next in queue…

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Beef and Potato Curry / Mas Kulunga Kari

(1 hour, serves 6)

This was my favorite dish growing up, the one my mother always makes for me when I come home, and the first Sri Lankan dish I learned to cook, when I called home desperate from the dorms, begging her to teach me how to make it over the phone. It’s also the first Sri Lankan dish my husband, Kevin, learned to cook — I came home once from a long plane flight, walked into the house, smelled the scent of this curry, that I hadn’t even known he had learned how to make, and promptly burst into tears. Enjoy.

3-5 medium onions, chopped fine

2 TBL ginger, chopped fine

4-5 garlic cloves, sliced

3 TBL vegetable oil

1 tsp black mustard seed

1 tsp cumin seed

1-2 TBL red chili powder

3 lbs chuck steak, cubed, about 1 inch pieces

1/3 cup ketchup

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 TBL Sri Lankan curry powder

1 heaping tsp salt

3 pieces cinnamon stick

3 cloves

3 cardamom pods

1 dozen curry leaves

1/2 cup milk

3 medium russet potatoes, cut into large chunks

2-3 TBL lime juice

1. In a large pot, sauté onions, ginger, and garlic in oil on medium-high with mustard seed and cumin seeds until onions are golden/translucent (not brown), stirring as needed. Add chili powder and cook 1 minute, stirring. Immediately stir in ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, curry powder, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and curry leaves.

2. Add beef and stir on high for a minute or two, browning the meat. Add milk, stirring. Cover, turn down to medium, and let cook half an hour, stirring occasionally.

3. Add potatoes, stir well, and cover again. Cook until potatoes are cooked through, adding water if needed to maintain a nice thick sauce (and to keep food from burning), stirring occasionally. Add lime juice; stir until well blended. Serve hot with rice or bread.

Okay, so Kevin and I used to really argue about green bean curry. The thing is, Kev’s from California, right? So he’s used to really great produce, and eating lots of salads and fresh veggies, so he thinks green beans should be cooked just ’til they’re al dente, nice and crisp and bright green.

And I am totally down with that when we’re making a salad, say, and I’m going to be tossing the green beans in with some roasted potatoes and a nice dressing and other deliciousness.

But dude. It is not the right approach for curry. Kev used to say that I was ‘cooking the green beans to death.’ He hasn’t said that in a long, long time.

(Now, I’m not sure if he’s actually changed his mind on this front or not — it may be that after thirty years together, Kev’s just learned not to say things like that about my cooking. He’s a smart man. You’d have to ask him.)

The thing is, if you just cook the green beans al dente, well, they taste like green beans. And that’s fine (especially if they’re in season and you have access to great green beans).

But if you sauté them for ten minutes with the seasoned onions, and then you simmer them in turmeric and salt and coconut milk, then the green beans pick up the fabulous flavor of the curry sauce. And yes, they’re not crispy anymore, and they’re not as bright green, and people, I am here to tell you that that is OKAY.

Do you demand that green beans in your soup be crispy? You do not. Think of green beans in curry like green beans in soup, and you’ll be just fine.

Now, there isn’t actually a green bean curry recipe in either Feast or Vegan Serendib, because it’s actually pretty much the EXACT SAME RECIPE as the carrot curry. It’s our standard Sri Lankan yellow curry with vegetables, so wherever it says carrots, you just substitute green beans.

Here, I’ll do it for you — but if you’re looking in one of my cookbooks, look up the carrot curry, and then sub in green beans (or whatever other vegetable you think would be nice in a yellow curry). In fact, half carrots and half green beans make a beautiful curry and is also delicious — that’s what I’d usually do for a dinner party.

I’ll note here that the green chilies are optional — I skip them if I’m cooking for young children, and it’s still yummy. The ginger and garlic is optional too, if you’re in a rush, but it will taste better if you use them (a cube of frozen ginger-garlic works great, if your grocery store carries it, as mine just started to!).

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Sri Lankan Curried Green Beans
(20-25 minutes, serves 4-6)

3 medium onions, chopped
3 TBL vegetable oil
1 T ginger, minced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 Thai green chilies, chopped fine (optional)
1/2 tsp black mustard seed
1/2 tsp cumin seed
1 lb. green beans, ends trimmed, cut into bite-size pieces
1 rounded tsp salt
1/2 t. turmeric
1/2 – 1 c. coconut milk (can use milk instead, but be extra careful not to curdle)

1. Sauté onions in oil on high with mustard seed, cumin seed, and ginger until onions are golden. Add garlic, green beans, turmeric, and salt. Cook on medium-high, stirring frequently, until green beans are cooked through.

2. Stir in coconut milk and turn heat down to low; simmer until well-blended and flavorful, stirring frequently. Serve hot.

TEMPERED (cooked, mixed with seasoned onions): I used to be really confused when my mom referred to ‘tempered potatoes’ or other tempered dishes. In Western cooking, ‘tempering’ means to slowly bring up the temperature of a cold or room temperature ingredient, by adding small amounts of a hot or boiling liquid. Adding the hot liquid gradually prevents the cool ingredient from cooking or setting. In Western cooking, tempering typically refers to either chocolate or eggs.

In South Asian cuisine, tempering is a widely used cooking method; you heat spices in hot oil, and then add them to your dish at the end of cooking. The hot oil extracts the flavors of the spices and intensifies their effect. South Asian tempering is done either at the beginning of the cooking process or as a final flavoring at the end—or sometimes both! The ingredients are usually added in rapid succession, rarely together, with those requiring longer cooking added earlier and those requiring less cooking added later. For instance, you’d add black mustard seeds to the hot oil first and then later add chopped garlic, which could burn if added earlier.

You can use this method with a wide variety of spices, for a wide variety of vegetables; you can simply mix tempered onions with boiled potatoes, or add them to a simmered lentil curry. Tempering highlights flavors that have already cooked into the dish, adding a bright, fresh seasoning note.

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Tempered Potatoes

(20 minutes, serves 4)

Simple, classic – my kids like this preparation.

3 russet potatoes, peeled
1 onion, sliced
3-4 cloves garlic , sliced
3 Tbsp. lime juice
1-2 tsp. dried red chili pieces
½ tsp. cayenne
¼ tsp. ground turmeric
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ tsp. black mustard seed
1 2-inch cinnamon stick
1 dozen curry leaves
1 – 1 1/2 tsp. salt

1. Boil potatoes, drain, and cut into large chunks or small dice, as you prefer.

2. In a medium bowl, mix these ingredients: onion, garlic, lime juice, chili pieces, cayenne, turmeric, and salt.

3. Heat oil in a saucepan on medium-high heat; when oil is ready add mustard seeds and let it pop up (nearly 2-4 seconds). Then add cinnamon and curry leaves and let it fry for 1-2 minutes. Then add the onion mixture and stir to mix.

4. Turn heat to medium, and fry, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent-golden, about 10 minutes; be careful not to burn them. The mixture should be very aromatic by this stage.

5. Add potatoes into the onion mixture, mixing well, but don’t break the potatoes into small pieces. Stir for a minute or two until well blended; taste and add salt and/or lime juice as desired. Serve with rice or bread.