Beef Korma

Has anyone noticed anything different on the blog lately? Recipes keep coming, writing remains about the same, but what about...the pictures? I hope you all have noticed an improvement because Will did something amazing for me for Christmas this year. He built me a special photo light, found here. I found this light on one of my favorite blogs, Pinch of Yum, in their food photography section. But instead of spending some buckaroo's on a light, we went the DIY option instead. And because of this little light powerhouse, you may have noticed the posts about mussels, tagine, miso-tahini noodles with tofu might have looked a bit improved! After taking some time to edit photos last weekend, I'm super stoked about the improved quality we can share with you in how our food looks! Now, the only flaw in this is now our older photos look less good and we need to remake about 440 recipes. Riiiiiiiiiight. We'll get on that ASAP.

So for this recipe in particular, no matter how pretty it looks, it has a bit of a story behind it. Once upon a time, Megan and Will thought they could buy boneless lamb leg in Williamsburg on a Saturday. They could not. While they could find other smaller cuts of lamb, a boneless leg or something similar just simply could not be found. So they settled for stew beef, since that appeared to be the next best option. Fast forward a few days, after they've been enjoying beef korma when Will runs to Trader Joe's on a Tuesday for something. What does he find? Boneless lamb leg. What is the lesson here? Don't always expect to find what you want/need on a Saturday, but don't give up and settle for something else. Needless to say, for this recipe it was great because the beef korma ended up being quite good - we hope to try it again with lamb at some point!

Cooking Notes: As mentioned above, we had to use stew beef in place of lamb, changing the scope of the recipe. The beef was only about 2 lbs. but we kept the rest of the proportions the same, for flavor. We also used only about 6 cloves of garlic, but that was because some of ours were huge.

Beef Korma (adapted from The Kitchn; serves 6-8)
6 large cloves garlic
1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp veggie or canola oil
2 lbs. stew beef, trimmed of fat and in 1" cubes
2 yellow onions, finely chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2+ tsp cayenne pepper
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 14-oz. can diced tomatoes

Toss the garlic, ginger and water in a small food processor and blend in a smooth paste, scraping down the sides as needed. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees and adjust racks to the lower third of the oven. Warm the oil in a large Dutch oven or other heavy oven-safe pot, over high heat on the stovetop. Brown the beef pieces, in batches, then set them aside in a bowl. Reduce the heat to medium-high and add the onions to cook, stirring frequently and scraping up any browned bits from the bottom. When onions are soft and translucent, add the spices and salt and toast for about 30 second - 1 minute, stirring frequently, until extremely fragrant. Add the garlic-ginger paste and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently, until most of the water has boiled away.

Add the beef pieces and their juices, the coconut milk and the tomatoes to the Dutch oven, stirring to combine. Cover and bring to a boil then place in the oven. Bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours or until beef is tender. Taste and adjust seasoning, as needed. Make time to cook basmati rice during the last 20-30 minutes of the time the beef is in the oven, so it's ready to be served. Serve immediately, but know it's best after 1-2 days in the fridge. Enjoy for several days!

Recipe: The Kitchn: Lamb Korma