Fruity Slow Cooked Curry
A mild and fruity curry which all the family can enjoy without blasting away their taste buds! We use beef but equally good results can be achieved with the same amount of chicken.
This recipe will give you a mild and fruity curry. We have tried a couple of different amounts of chilies and curry powder to experiment and we feel the balance between a fruity taste and a mild curry flavour is just about correct. Neither flavour overpowers the other.
Add some curry powder if you want a hotter curry flavour or more fruit if you prefer a fruitier flavoured curry. Different fruits include pineapple chunks, apricots or coconut which are typical ingredients of this type of curry.
Curries which use fruit as a key ingredient tend to originate from Southern India because its tropical climate is suited to growing many different types of fruit.
Ingredients for Fruity Curry
750g / 1lb 11oz casserole or braising steak A good alternative is chicken
Large can (400g) of chopped plum tomatoes
1 large cooking apple
2 medium onions
25g / 1oz of sultanas
Juice of half a lemon
3cm / 1in stick of ginger
2 teaspoons of cumin
2 teaspoons of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of turmeric
2 teaspoons of garam marsala
1 garlic clove
2 medium sized chili peppers
150ml of beef stock (fresh or two stock cubes in water)
2 level tablespoons of flour (any)
A small amount of curry powder if you want to spice up the curry a bit more (optional).
Prepared Ingredients for Fruity Curry
Turn the slow cooker to high. Add the chopped tomatoes and beef stock.
Chop the beef into 2cm to 3cm chunks.
Remove the stalk from the chili peppers, slice in half, remove the pith and seeds and finely chop. Clean your hands thoroughly after handling the chilies.
Top and tail, peel and finely chop the onion and garlic.
Peel the apple, cut in half and remove the core. Chop the apple into small pieces.
Peel the ginger and grate it.
This is a true one-pot slow cooker meal and we are happy to explain why. Almost all other beef curry recipes call for an extra two steps prior to adding the ingredients to the slow-cooker. The first is to fry the beef; the reason given for this step, almost always, is to colour and seal the beef.
This appears to be purely convention and not necessary at all. Cook any beef in a curry sauce for seven hours and it will most definitely colour it of its own accord.
As far as sealing the beef is concerned, this is also a waste of time. Take a look at a cube of slow cooked beef and you will see the texture is open because that it how tender beef is when slow cooked.
Finally, softening the onions before cooking them is a waste of time, they will soften more than enough in the slow cooker. Save yourself time and washing up, just throw the lot into the slow cooker and leave it to cook on its own.
We use casserole or braising steak rather than stewing steak because it tenderises far better and the final texture is better for most beef slow cooker dishes.
Add all the ingredients (tomatoes and stock were added at the preparation stage above) to the slow cooker on a high heat. Stir all the ingredients well. After 30 minutes turn the slow cooker to low, stir well and leave to cook for six and a half hours.
An optional step is to stir all the ingredients well half way through slow-cooking to ensure they do not stick to the sides.
STEP 2Taste the curry half an hour before serving and stir in a small amount of curry powder if it is not hot enough for your taste buds.
At the same time as tasting the curry, check the consistency of the of the curry. If it is too runny, sprinkle an additional heaped teaspoon of flour over the curry and stir in well. The flour will thicken the curry sauce.
Serve the curry on a bed of long grain rice. For lots of ideas on cooking rice Indian style see this page here.
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16 November 2023 | From: Karen |
| This curry recipe gives the correct balance between meat, spice and fruit as far I am concerned. Friends love it when I serve it up. I often add a small can of drained pineapple chunks - delicious. | ||
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17 December 2022 | From: Maria |
| I have cooked this recipe several times since discovering it this year. It is the only one that l use now. I always add 2 heaped teaspoons of curry powder. Also chopped, dried apricots. Cook on stove for 3 hrs once boiled or slower cooker. | ||