Sunday, August 9, 2009

Beef Pickle / Irachi Achar


Ingredients:
  1. Beef - 1 kg (2lbs)tough cut of meat without fat .
  2. Garlic - 2 pods peeled
  3. Ginger - 2 inch piece chopped
  4. green chillies - 10 cut into rings
  5. meat masala crushed - cardamon,fennel,cinnamon,pepper
  6. vinegar - to taste
  7. chilly powder - 4 tbsp
  8. turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
  9. mustard seeds - 1 tsp
  10. curry leaves - few springs
  11. Oil - as required
Method :
You can either cook big chunks of beef with salt and turmeric and then cut into small cubes and fry them OR you can cut the raw meat into smallish cubes and marinate them with salt and a few pinches of turmeric powder and fry them .You don't have to deep fry but shallow fry until the meat is well fried.
In 1 tsp of new oil splutter the mustard seeds and add this to the oil in which you fried the meat .
Add in the ginger , garlic and green chillies and curry leaves ,crushed meat masala and fry for 2 minutes.
Add in the chilly powder and remaining turmeric powder and saute until raw smell is gone.
Add salt and vinegar and bring to a simmer.
Add the fried meat pieces into the gravy and simmer for a minute.
As the pickle sits the fried meat will absorb the liquid - add boiled and cooled water as necessary to get a thick gravy.Adjust salt and vinegar to taste.

8 comments:

  1. hw much of cardamom, fenal,cinnamon and pepper we need to take to make meat masala

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  2. for 1kg of beef you can use approximately - 5 cardamoms,3 cloves, 1/2 tsp of fennel, 1 small piece (1/2 inch) of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of whole pepper.A little bit more or less doesnt matter.

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  3. Excellent...very tasty..thanks.

    Any idea how long will it last without getting spoiled..? of course refrigerated and hygienically handled.

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  4. what is the shelf life of this prep? can we preserve it without refrigetaring it??

    Sabeena

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  5. Sabeena - if you fry the meat really well(remove all the water content) then it stays good without refrigeration for over a month.If you refrigerate -it stays good for a long time at least several months .

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  6. Couldn't resist asking, in the recipe, you said to add boiled and cooled water; on the last post you said absence of water increases the shelf life of this pickle, I would like to add water, will this make the pickle spoil?

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  7. If you like a little gravy in the pickle - yes you can add water - Boiling it first kills whatever germs that might be present in the water , that can speed up the spoilage process. If you plan on making large quantities to store for a year at least (outside the fridge) then it is better to keep it dry - you can always add a little water to small batches as you use it. Even with water it stays good in the fridge for couple of months. Just make sure you leave a thin layer of oil floating on top. That prevents the meat from coming into contact with the air.That also helps prolong the shelf life. Hope that helps.

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  8. GREAT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR QUICK REPLY

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