Beef Ularthiyathu (Beef Dry Fry) ~ Kottayam Style

Writing this post is going to be a difficult task. My mouth is watering and leaving me craving for these. I should have drafted this post much earlier when I had made it and still leftover. Well there was no such moment. It just vanished from our plates in no time.

I got to know that there are different ways of getting this dish done. But I am used to making it the Kottayam style. Even though I would so love to try out other versions, whenever I start making them, I end up making it this way, as it is very dear to our hearts.

In Kerala, this is a must serving in Kallu Shappu/toddy shops (at least I was told so). Well, I didn't have toddy to serve with it :P but when we had lunch we did have buttermilk(little over fermented to have the tanginess) to go with it.

During my hostel days in Kerala, we weren't supposed to have food from outside. But we had secret sources of getting it. We had a hotel that shared its boundary with our college campus. We used to get to the hotel ( standing on our side of the boundary) and climb up a rock pulled up already, just enough to peep to the other side ( i.e. the kitchen of the hotel). With a stick we would beat on the boundary so that the aunty in the kitchen could hear us. Sometimes it used to take long before aunty would appear as an angel offering us food. She would then come out and we could order for some beef fry and Kerala Porotta. We used to have it as if in heaven. Our seniors taught us and we followed it and hope our juniors are also doing the same. Fingers crossed and hoping that this post never gets to the warden :P. Lets move on to the recipe now. Hope you like it.

                                                                                                                                                    Got this badge at a sampling event.

Ingredients

To cook the Beef

1. 1 kg of beef, washed, drained and cut into cubes
2. 1 cup of finely sliced shallots/ onion(preferably red onions) 
3. 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
4. 1/2 tbsp of chilly powder
5. 3/4 tbsp of coriander powder
6. 1/2 tbsp of fennel seeds/ perumjeerakam
7. 1 sprig of curry leaves
8. 1 tbsp of finely chopped ginger
9. 1 tbsp of finely chopped garlic
10. Sliced coconut/ Thengakothu
11. Salt to taste

For frying

1. 5 -6 shallots finely sliced
2. 1/2 tbsp of pepper powder
3. A sprig of curry leaves
4. 1-2 tbsp of coconut oil

Method

• In a pressure cooker, drop all the ingredients from 1 to 11. Drop in 2 tbsp of water and give it a thorough mix with you hands. Let it marinate for about half an hour.
• Now cook it. For me, it took, 1 whistle on high heat followed by 4 whistles on medium heat. It would truly depend on the quality of the beef. The beef would be almost cooked(not fully cooked) by now. Do not over cook it.
• Remove it from heat and let the pressure release on its own. Only once the pressure has come down, open the cooker. 
• In a thick bottom skillet, drop in the oil. Once the oil is hot, drop in the sliced shallots and curry leaves. Saute it till golden brown. Drop in the pepper powder, stir it. 
• Drop in the cooked beef and give it a mix. Now turn down the heat to medium and let the gravy thicken and get dried. Keep stirring them in intervals so that they don't burn and stick to the bottom and get roasted well to get the dark colour.

Tips

1. Do not cut the beef into very tiny cubes. Else they would break and would not remain in shape.
2. Do not use too much of onion, else they might leave a sweet taste to the beef fry. Traditional recipe calls in for use of shallots. But using red onions is equally good. 
3. Do not use too much water while cooking the beef. The water content in the beef is enough to get them cooked.
4. Use chilly powder and not paprika/kashmiri chilly if you need the dark colour to your beef fry.
5. Do not over cook the beef in the pressure cooker, else they would fall apart and loose its shape while frying.
6. If you feel the beef is getting too dry, you could use a bit more of oil.

Recipe courtesy : My Mom