Cheater beef curry

Learning to write up recipes is a bit of a new thing for me.  I spend alot of time reading various food blogs and usually cook dinner based on a few different posts that I've read.  I often make things up as I go along and I rarely measure.  Hopefully I'll quickly learn to take good mental notes while I'm cooking!

This recipe idea came from my friend Kate's mom.  We had a curry at Kate's place a few years ago and it was fabulous.  Kate's mom couldn't really remember what she had put in her curry but she gave me enough info to work off of.  I won't claim that this is close to any type of authentic Indian food but it's easy to make and tastes amazing!

1 lb stew meat
1 large jar Patak's cooking sauce*
Curry powder to taste
2 tbsp oil, divided
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 can stewed tomatoes
1/2 can coconut milk

Brown your stew meat with the 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan set over medium heat.  Turn meat often to ensure even browning.  Sprinkle meat with curry powder (probably 2 tbsp of curry powder but use more if you like your curry spicy).  Add browned meat to crock pot and saute onions/garlic in same frying pan along with 1 tbsp oil.  Saute for about 5 minutes and add to crock pot.  Pour a jar of Patak's cooking sauce and 1/2 can of stewed tomatoes (or whatever kind you have on hand) into the crock pot.  Stir gently and cover with the lid.  Cook on low for 8 hrs.  Add coconut milk in last 30 minutes of cooking.  Serve with rice and steamed cauliflower.  Yum!


Note - I  buy the Patak's sauces in a 3-pack at Costco.  I think the flavours are Butter Chicken, Korma, and Tikki Masala.  I don't really notice the difference in flavour so I use them inter-changably in this recipe.  And FYI, buying those 3-packs at Costco is a great deal!  I think that they only cost about $7 for the whole 3-pack whereas a normal (small) jar costs about $5/each.

Note two - if you have a large crock pot, you can add the full cans of tomatoes and coconut milk.  You will just end up with more sauce.  This is not necessarily a bad thing as the sauce is great on cauliflower and peas (or sopped up in Naan bread!).  If you have a smaller crockpot like I do, both canned tomatoes and coconut milk do well in the freezer.