Serves: 4
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes
Total: 50 minutes
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
150 g button mushrooms, sliced
400 g sirloin steak, trimmed of fat and cut into thin strips
½ teaspoons finely chopped ginger
2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
½ teaspoon crushed dried chillies
2 teaspoons ground coriander
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 can (about 400 g) chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon cornflour mixed with 1 tablespoon water
¼ cups (310 g) plain yoghurt
1 tablespoon clear honey
125 g baby spinach leaves
juice of ½ lime
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander, plus extra leaves to garnish
Cardamom rice
1¼ cups (350 g) basmati rice, well rinsed
1 cinnamon stick
8 whole green cardamom pods, cracked
juice of ½ lemon
sea salt
Method:
Heat a wok or large, heavy-based saucepan on the side burner over high heat. Heat the oil and add the onion and mushrooms. Cook for 2 minutes or until onion slices begin to colour.
Add the beef together with the ginger, garlic, chillies, ground coriander, cardamom, turmeric and nutmeg. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring well, then add the tomatoes with their juice and the cornflour mixture. Bring to the boil, stirring. Stir in the yoghurt and honey. Bring back to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the cardamom rice. Place 2 cups (500 ml) cold water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the rice, cinnamon stick and cardamom pods. Bring back to the boil, then cover tightly and cook for 10 minutes or until the rice is tender. Drain off any excess water and return the rice to the saucepan. Stir in the lemon juice and sea salt and keep covered until serving.
Stir the spinach, lime juice and chopped coriander into the curry and allow the leaves to wilt down into the sauce. To serve, spoon the curry over the cardamom rice and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
Cooking Tip:
If you like a hot curry, add a halved fresh red chilli to the sauce towards the end of the cooking time. The chilli can be left in the sauce or discarded before serving.