Beef Kala Bhuna

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg beef shoulder or chuck, cut into 3 cm cubes
• 4 large onions (about 600 g), thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp ginger paste
• 2 tbsp garlic paste
• 150 ml mustard oil
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 5 green cardamom pods
• 1 black cardamom pod
• 6 cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• 0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
• 0.5 tsp ground mace
• 2 tsp salt
• 6 dried red chillies
• 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp ghee
• 8 green chillies
• 150 ml hot water, if needed

Before you cook

• Cut the beef into 3 cm cubes, leaving some fat on for richness.
• Slice the onions thinly and set a quarter of them aside for the final tempering.
• Thinly slice the 6 garlic cloves.
• Measure out all the ground spices into one small bowl.

Steps

1. Put the beef in a heavy pot with three quarters of the sliced onions, the ginger and garlic pastes, the turmeric, coriander, cumin, chilli powder, black pepper, whole spices, salt and the mustard oil.
2. Mix everything with your hands until every cube is coated, then leave it to sit for 30 minutes.
3. Set the pot over medium heat, cover it, and cook for 30 minutes without adding any water at all.
4. Uncover and stir, then cook for a further 45 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring every 10 minutes.
5. Watch for the liquid to reduce away and the meat to darken from red-brown towards near black as the onions caramelise.
6. Add the hot water only if the pot dries out before the beef is tender, and keep cooking until a cube crushes easily against the pan.
7. Stir in the ground nutmeg and mace and cook for 5 minutes more.
8. Heat the ghee in a small frying pan over medium heat.
9. Fry the reserved sliced onions with the sliced garlic and the dried red chillies for 6 minutes, until deep brown and crisp.
10. Pour this tempering, ghee and all, straight over the beef.
11. Push the whole green chillies into the surface and cover the pot.
12. Rest it off the heat for 10 minutes, then stir once and serve with plain rice or paratha.