BIR Pre-cooked Beef

BIR Pre-cooked Beef is a modern British recipe (from British Indian Restaurants) for a classic method of pre-cooking beef for use in BIR-style curries. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: BIR Pre-cooked Beef.

prep time

5 minutes

cook time

120 minutes

Total Time:

125 minutes

Serves:

6–8

Rating:

Tags : BIR CurriesSpice RecipesBeef RecipesBritish Recipes

The best curries using beef tend to be those that are slightly darker and normally tomato and onion-based. Dishes like madras are customarily-made for beef. You could also consider curries such as bhuna, jalfrezi, and dopiaza as ideal curries to use beef with. The really spicy curries like vindaloo, phaal, and madras work well with beef as do mot balti-style curries. Personally, I like topside for curry beef. It’s a leaner cut from the very back end of the cow. It has a low(ish) fat content, but is a muscle that still does a fair bit of work in the animal (the more use a muscle gets the more flavour it has). This does mean that it’s a slightly tougher cut, but that makes it more economical and it really doesn’t matter if your’re slow cooking it as we are here.

This is the British Indian Restaurant method for pre-cooking the meat, which really saves a lot of time when you come to cooking your curry. You can use pre-cooked beef as a direct substitute in any recipe that calls for pre-cooked lamb.

Ingredients:

1kg (2 lbs) topside beef joint
1 tbsp oil
1 finger-sized cinnamon stick
2 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 tsp of cumin seeds
1 onion, sliced
2 tbsp mix powder
1 tbsp garlic-ginger paste
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
2 tbsp tomato puree diluted with 3 tbsp warm water
1l (4 cups) beef stock

Method:

Cut the topside joint into 6 equal-sized portions then slice each one into 4-6 pieces.

In the meantime, place a large pot over high heat and add the oil. Once the oil is simmering add the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods and cumin seeds. Fry for 30 seconds then add the beef pieces and toss in the spiced oil until nicely browned on all sides (about 5 minutes). Once there are no pink pieces visible add the onion and stir to combine.

Cook for 4 minutes until the onion is soft then add the mix powder along with the ginger-garlic paste, salt and black pepper. Mix well once more to coat the beef in the spices and continue frying for 4 minutes, or until the spices have darkened (but do not allow them to burn).

At this point add the diluted tomato purée and the beef stock. Secure a tight-fitting lid on top of the pan then turn down the heat to medium.

Simmer the beef for 90-120 minutes. Top up the water as needed during the cooking time.

The beef is ready when it pulls apart easily when picked up with a fork. At this point the beef is done. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool. Strain the liquid in the pot through a fine-meshed sieve and reserve as beef stock.

Once cooled the beef is ready to used or it can be stored in the refrigerator or frozen for future use.