Cape Malay Curry

In honor of World Cup starting on June 11 in South Africa, Brian suggested making something South African (side note - all soups in the month of June may be inspired by the outcomes of important World Cup games). I did a little research since I had no earthly idea what kind of soups are common in South Africa and came up with several stew recipes (or bredie recipes) involving oxtail or mutton. Now, I regard myself as a semi-adventurous eater, but my typical American snobbish ways prevent me from having any desire to cook oxtail. If I have to go to some specialty, ethnic food market to get a meat ingredient, I believe that I do not know how to properly cook it and shouldn't even try. Am I missing out on something delicious? Probably, but I'm okay with that.  After an hour or so of disheartening research resulting only in said bredie recipes, I remembered the wonderful curry dishes I ate while in Cape Town a few years ago. Surely there must be a South African curry out there. The wonders of the interwebs found me this delicious Cape Malay Curry.

For this gem you'll need: some meat, I went with beef, 1 large onion, 2 cloves of garlic, about an inch of fresh ginger root, 1 large or 2 medium eggplants, 1 green bell pepper, curry powder, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander, hot smoked paprika, bay leaves, beef broth, tomato paste, red wine vinegar, dried apricots, plain yogurt and apricot preserves.  I know it looks and sounds like an awful lot of ingredients, but they are mostly spices, so don't worry.

First, chop the meat into stew sized chunks.  I had this hunk of beef in my freezer and didn't feel like buying any more. It is pretty small, maybe only 3/4 of a pound.  Feel free to add more if you like more meat. Also, lamb would probably be good here.

Next, mince two cloves of garlic, dice one large onion, and peel and mince about an inch of ginger root.  These can all hang out in a bowl together.  If you can't find fresh ginger, or think it's super annoying to have to peel it, ground ginger is okay, probably about 1/2 teaspoon.

Now, chop up the rest of the veggies.  Cube the eggplant into one inch cubes, dice the bell pepper and set aside together.  I used a ton of eggplant because I didn't have much meat and I really like eggplant. Feel free to use less eggplant if that's more to your taste.

Next, the spices.  I normally don't measure spices, but I don't have a good appreciation of which spices and in which proportions make a tasty curry, so felt it was prudent to measure here. Into a small prep cup, measure one teaspoon each of curry powder, coriander, cloves, and turmeric, and 1 1/2 teaspoons each of cumin and hot smoked paprika, and 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon.  Also add a pinch of salt and stir.

Now, for cooking. I used a cast iron dutch oven. Heating it over medium-high heat and adding some olive oil.  Once the oil was hot, I added the spice mix and toasted the spices for about a minute.

Then I added the onions, garlic and ginger mix and 2 bay leaves, cooking for about 3 minutes.

Next I added the beef, browning on all sides.

Here's a fantastic picture of why the cast iron dutch oven is integral to this recipe.  Things really like to stick to the bottom of these cooking vessels.  These "things" are often delicious flavorful bits that must be scraped off the bottom of the dutch oven for your enjoyment. Once you get some liquid into this pot, it is super important to scrape the bottom to release the flavor.

Next, add the eggplant and peppers, stirring to mix.

Immediately add the broth. Be sure to scrape the bottom as well.

Next, add a small can of tomato paste, stirring to mix.

Then, add some delicious dried apricots.

Lastly, add a splash of red wine vinegar. Increase the heat to bring to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat and simmer for about an hour, stirring infrequently.

Once the curry is done, it will have a lovely, deep, reddish orange color. Immediately before serving, stir in a dollop of plain yogurt and apricot preserves.

 

This curry would be delicious with some rice. I didn't feel like making rice, so I opted for a stale piece of pita bread. The spice mix in the curry is truly tasty, so the curry is fine without added carbs as well. Enjoy and go Team USA!