Indian inspired curry with left over roast

The other night, we did a roast but ended up with too much meat and a few roasted potatoes. As this would be far from enough for a full meal, I decided to do a curry and serve this with a large dish of stir fried mixed vegetables and rice – a completely new meal. Again – this is meant as inspiration and the amounts of spices are based on the amounts of left over meat and potatoes. You could easily keep the same amounts for a bit more meat and potatoes, but if you have the double, I suggest that you add up the other ingredients as well.

Ingredients:

250 g beef (this time it was left overs from a roast)

60 g potatoes (left over roasted potatoes)

2 tpbs sunflower oil

2 tbsp butter

1 finely diced onion

1 large finely diced clove of garlic

Fresh ginger the size of half a thumb, finely diced

1 can coconut milk (400 ml)

2 smaller bay leaves

Salt to taste

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Last – a small handful of chopped fresh cilantro leaves – leaving a few for garnishing

Method:

Slice your meat into fine strips. Cut the potatoes into what would correspond to quarters. (If they are whole, quarter them, if they are halved already, cut them in halves)

Finely chop the onion, garlic and ginger.

Heat up a dry wok at high temperature, add the spices (cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, mustard seeds and nutmeg) and heat these while stirring until the mustard seeds start to pop.

Add the butter and the oil and let this melt along with the spices. When melted, add the onion, garlic and ginger and stirfry this while stirring for a few minutes, – maybe 5 – until soft. Add the beef and fry – still at high temperature – for about 5 minutes.

Add the coconut milk and the bay leaves and let the sauce simmer for about 20 minutes. It needs to be a bit creamy. Add the salt and the potatoes, stir and let them simmer along for about 2 minutes. The potatoes just need to be warm as they have already been cooked the other day. Finally, add the fresh cilantro leaves, stir and let them welt for about 1 minute.

Garnish with a few roughly chopped cilantro leaves.

Serve with stir fried vegetables and rice.