Although curry dishes are not authentic to Balkan cuisines, they have gained popularity in the region in recent years. I also use a very famous Balkan ingredient in this curry, Greek yoghurt! For that reason, I decided to include this Easy Beef Curry in a Slow Cooker recipe as a contemporary dish on my blog. It is a recipe that I have created myself from a combination of several other recipes I have tried. I must confess, this curry is one of my favourite dishes!

WHAT’S THE LINK BETWEEN BULGARIAN AND ASIAN FOOD?

Balkan food is commonly described to be a mixture of Mediterranean and Asian influences. In most Balkan cuisines, vegetarian patties, meat koftas and kofta dishes with sauces are classics. They are very traditional in Indian cooking as well.

An Indian friend of mine, originally from the Northwestern Panjabi part of India, commented recently that his granny in India made something very similar to my Rose petal jam. That intrigued me. It also reminded me, that when my mum and dad came to visit us in the UK from Bulgaria some years ago, and my husband and I took them to a North Indian restaurant in London, my father commented that the food he had in the restaurant reminded him of Bulgarian food. I am still not exactly sure what he meant – was it that, in Bulgarian cuisine, we have a lot of stews, or was it the taste?

Indian spice mixes, like garam masala, are not well known in the Balkans, and ginger and cardamon are not commonly used in Balkan cooking. But most of the ingredients in the Indian garam masala spice mix are traditional to the Balkan cuisines. Cumin and black pepper are the most traditional spices in cooking on the Peninsular. Cinnamon, coriander seeds, nutmeg and cloves are very common, too. Curry (masala) and turmeric are ingredients often present in traditional savoury spice mixes, like “chubritsa mixes” or “sharena sol” in Bulgaria. There are definitely some similarities between the Balkan and the Indian traditional cuisines and that is due to the influences from the Middle Eastern cooking traditions in both geographical regions from centuries ago.

But now, let’s talk about my curry! I love a good curry and over time I managed to develop my own method for making it. My method is a combination of different techniques, which I adopted over the years from different people. Some of these techniques I learned from Indian friends from the South and North of India, others from professional chefs, and some from my parents. I would like to share these techniques here with you.

📖 STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

I usually make this recipe with beef, goat meat or chicken. The recipe can also be made with lamb or venison.

If you are cooking beef, the best meat for this recipe is a good quality braising steak. The braising steak, also known as a chuck steak, consists of parts of the neck, shoulder blade and upper arm of the animal. It is tough meat, but it is very flavoursome when slow-cooked.

If you are cooking it with chicken, I would recommend cooking it with chicken thighs on the bone, as the bone adds to the flavours of the dish. Same with goat meat, it is best to be on the bone.

The basic ingredients in my Easy Beef Curry in Slow Cooker are ginger, red onions, a lot of garlic and chillis. Adding more of these ingredients will make the flavours more powerful and the texture richer. That is why, when a recipe calls for a 3-inch piece of ginger, I normally use more. I really love the flavour and the texture ginger brings to the dish. It is the same with the garlic and the chillis. However, if you like your curry milder, you can reduce the amount of ginger, garlic and chillis in my recipe to half, just keep in mind that will make a thinner and less flavoursome curry.

Spices that make a curry special are, of course, madras, cumin, cardamom, mustard seeds, coriander, black pepper, and cinnamon sticks. If you have garam masala spice mix and curry leaves available, add them to the list.

Bay leaves are great to use in a curry, too. Recent scientific studies have proven that bay leaf converted triglycerides to monounsaturated fats, eliminates heartburn, acidity, and constipation, regulates bowel movements and blood sugar, makes the human body produce insulin, eliminates bad cholesterol, protects the heart, etc.

I also like to use good-quality red wine in my recipe. I know, wine is not an authentic ingredient in Indian cuisine, but It is scientifically proven that alcohol bonds with the fat and the water molecules when used in cooking and holds aromas and flavours in the dish. In other words, it makes your food smell and tastes better. Alcohol also helps the meat to cook better.

And here is a very typical Balkan ingredient, which I use in my recipe, the so-called Greek yoghurt. In fact, any thick full-fat yoghurt will work well. If you have lactose intolerance, you can replace the yoghurt with full-fat coconut milk which will also add to the flavours.

I usually use a good quality tomato puree or sweet Italian chopped tomatoes in this curry. Fresh tomatoes will work fine. Just add some sugar to the curry to kill the acidity in the tomato.

📖 STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

Some may consider making the dish too complicated, but believe me, it is not! Follow these easy steps:

STEP 1: Prepare the meat

Cut the braised steak into large cubes. Marinate the meat pieces for at least two hours in salted yoghurt.

STEP 2: Prepare the vegetable paste

Peel the ginger, garlic and onions. Remove the stalks from the green chillis. Cut the onions, chillis and ginger into smaller chunks.

Place all these ingredients in the food processor and process into a paste.

STEP3: Prepare the spices

Place the spice seeds (cumin, cardamom, mustard, coriander and black pepper) in a small heated dry pan on your hob. Roast the seeds on a hot hob until they are fragrant. Break the cardamom seeds and remove the shells and keep the little small seeds inside. Using a mortar and a pestle grind all roasted spice seeds.

Add masala and garam masala to the mortar bowl and stir with the rest of the spices. Dilute the spices with 2 tablespoons of water and stir well with a spoon until the spices are combined with the water.

STEP 4: Cook the curry

Heat coconut butter or ghee in your multifunction cooker using the “Sauté” function. Brown the meat until the moisture is reduced and the meat has changed colour and turns golden in colour. Remove the meat from the multifunction cooker pan.

Transfer the vegetable paste from your food processor bowl to the multifunction cooker pan and sauté the paste for a few minutes until it is soft.

Add the spices from your mortar to the paste and cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add crushed cinnamon stick, curry leaves and bay leaves.

Be careful not to burn the ginger and the spices, because the sauté function on most multifunction cookers can be quite hot. Burning the ginger or the spice mixture will result in a bitter taste in your curry.

Add the meat to the spiced paste, stir well to coat the meat with the paste and saute for a couple of minutes.

Pour wine when the spices start making a crust on the bottom of the pan. Use a wooden spoon to scrape them from the hot surface of the pan and stir them with the wine, otherwise, they will burn. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until the wine is reduced.

Pour the tomato puree into the multifunction cooker pan. Add brown sugar to reduce the acidity of the tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes until some of the moisture has evaporated. Turn the “Saute” function on your multifunction cooker off.

Add the yoghurt and stir to combine it with the tomato and the spices mixture. Add water. If you like your curry saucey, double the amount of water in my recipe.

Occasionally, I like to add a couple of cubed potatoes to my curry, but only when I am making the curry thinner.

If you are replacing the yoghurt with coconut milk, use less water than the amount stated in this recipe because coconut milk contains more liquid than full-fat yoghurt and it will make the curry thinner.

Turn on the “Slow cooking” function of your multifunction cooker, secure the lid on the cooker and let it cook for 4 hours.

🍲 SERVE THIS DELICIOUS CURRY

Serve the dish on a bed of cooked balsamic rice, sprinkled with chopped dehydrated onion and fresh coriander on top. If the curry is too spicy to your taste, add 1-2 tablespoons of yoghurt.

Enjoy!

More Balkan Stews

• Lentil Stew
• Sausage and Bean Stew