From Scratch: Sri Lankan Beef Curry!

I had never made successful beef curry before, so this is pretty exciting for me. the only hard part of this whole adventure was getting the ingredients, but even that wasn't too bad, with the little help of the Bharat Bazaar a couple blocks from my house. the process of cooking this was so easy though, and the flavor was amazing, so it's definitely worth making this again!
i also doubled the recipe when i made this, since i was making this back at my hometown, which meant i had to feed my brother and my parents, and they sure eat alot. another thing too, the recipe called for cayenne chili peppers but i couldn't find them...so my mom just gave me regular-looking chili peppers.

Ingredients
serves about 5-6

2 pounds boneless beef

vegetable oil

20 fresh curry leaves

2 chili peppers

2 cups finely chopped onion

2 teaspoon turmeric

salt

1 cup coconut milk

2 tablespoons tamarind pulp

1/2 cup hot water

for the dry spice mixture:

2 tablespoons raw white rice

2 tablespoons coriander seeds

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

2 1-inch piece cinnamon sticks

seeds from 2 pods of green cardamom

cut beef into 1/2 inch cubes

roast the dry spice mixture over medium heat for 3-4 minutes. stir continuously to prevent anything from burning. i kept it on the heat until the rice started getting some color.

then grind into a powder

like this.

soak the tamarind pulp in the hot water

in a large wide pot, add oil just enough to cover the bottom of the pot and heat over medium high heat.

add the onions and stir-fry for a minute

finely chop the chilis

and add the chilis, curry leaves, and turmeric into the pot with the onions and stir-fry for 3 minutes

i stirred until it looked like this, when the onions look slightly translucent and the curry leaves are softened.

add the meat and salt and cook until the meat is browned on all sides, about five minutes.

yumm. just like this!

add the dry spice mixture and stir to coat.

then add the coconut milk and stir to coat (i stirred the coconut milk well in the can before measuring out the 1 cup of coconut milk)

reduce heat to medium and cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

first i pressed down on the tamarind pulp with a spoon against the sides of the bowl...

then strained the soaked tamarind into 3 cups of water

add the tamarind mixture to the pot and bring to a boil

after bringing to a boil, lower the heat to a strong simmer and let it simmer, uncovered, for an hour, until the meat is tender and the flavors are blended.

i let it simmer a little over an hour, probably an hour and ten minutes, because i wanted it to be slightly on the thick side...but not too thick. just not watery.