Irachi poriyal/Srilankan Black Pepper Beef Fry

This is a family favourite and a mandate for every occasion at home. This is one dish that I get requested for the most. Even the very finicky eaters, example my husband, loves this dish. What really makes this unique and super tasty is a very important principle in cooking – less is more! Yes, you heard me right. This is one outstanding dish with not much ingredients involved. Minimalism is yet another practice that I have observed about Srilankan food – the art of using minimal ingredients and every element is respected and sung praises for in the recipe.

This dish has a long shelf life and is therefore preferred during travel and is commonly packed for relatives living away from home. It can be stored in the fridge for over 3 to 4 weeks and on the shelf for 4 to 5 days, if untouched. In case you are planning to use it for longer durations, do not add potatoes and reduce the quantity of onions by half. Also, the onions have to be fried well and not added at the end like mentioned in the below recipe.

When there are occasions and parties at home, we usually stock up foil boxes to pack the remaining food for family members. However, this one never sees foil boxes in its lifetime LOL! It is a simple dish singing harmony and doing justice to every element in it. The roasted fennel and peppercorns coat the fried pieces of meat giving it a grainy spice casing. The catch in this dish is to fry the onions just right so that it doesn't get mushy and retains the crisp texture.

We prefer undercut for this recipe as too much fat can leave a chewy texture which is not so good for this recipe. Any excess fat can be trimmed off and if there is stock left after pressure cooking the meat, I store it for use later in soups or curries.

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Ingredients

Beef – half kg washed and drained well

Surul pattai or cinnamon – 1 bark – 2 inch

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp

Water – 1 ½ cups

Oil – 5 to 6 tbsps

Salt – to taste

Tumeric – a pinch

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Fennel seeds – 1 tbsp

Pepper corns – 1 tbsp

Curry leaf - 2 sprigs

Onions – 2 medium

Potato – 1 large or 2 medium

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Method

1. Wash and drain beef. Add to a pressure cooker along with 1 1/2 cups of water. Add salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder, ginger garlic paste and cinnamon.

2. Pressure cook for 8 to 10 mins on medium flame.

3. Meanwhile, in a pan, roast fennel seeds/saunf, peppercorns and 1 sprig of curry leaf until they turn slightly brown in color and you can smell the aroma from the spices. Cool and grind using a motor and pestle. You can also use a blender but be sure not to grind them to a fine powder. The spice has to be coarse and grainy with the curry leaves just torn to bits.

4. Drain excess stock from cooked beef and remove the cinnamon bark.

5. Add oil to a pan and when hot add cubed pieces of potato and fry on low flame until cooked well and the color turns slightly brown. Remove from oil and keep aside.

6. To the remaining oil, add the beef pieces and fry on high flame until the color changes to deep brown.

7. Adjust salt, add the ground spices, thinly sliced onions, fried potato and 1 sprig of curry leaf. Fry till everything combines well. The onions taste best when half cooked.