Spicy beef osso bucco curry with polao

The secret to the polao comes from the extra fragrant South Asian rice known as Kali Jeera or Chinigura - which combined with ghee, makes for the most fragrant aromatic rice. Served with a tender osso bucco spicy curry, this combination makes for an extra special Eid celebration. This recipe comes from Masterchef contestant and restaurant co-owner, Rashedul Hasan.

Credit: Jiwon Kim

• serves

  6

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  1:30 hour

• difficulty

  Easy

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The Cook Up with Adam Liaw

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Cooking

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series • 

Cooking

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Ingredients

• 2 kg beef osso buco (also called osso bucco), cut into pieces
• 1½ tsp turmeric powder
• 3 tsp red Kashmiri chilli powder
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 3 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 4 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 3 tbsp ginger paste
• 2 tbsp garlic paste
• 2 cups beresta (fried onions) (homemade is best, see Note)
• ¼ cup reserved beresta cooking oil (or other oil)
• ½ cup mustard oil
• 5 green cardamom pods
• 1 black cardamom
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 Thai green chillies
• Salt
• Tomato and cucumber salad, to serve

For the aromatic polao

• ½ cup ghee
• 5 green cardamom pods
• 2.5 cm cassia bark or cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves (tejpatta)
• 5 green chillies, trimmed
• 1 tbsp ginger water (see Note)
• 1 tbsp garlic water (see Note)
• 3 cups Kalajerra or Chinigura rice
• ¼ tsp mace power
• ¼ tsp nutmeg powder
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 6 cups water
• 1 tsp rosewater
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Marinating time: 2–12 hours

Instructions

1. Combine the beef osso bucco pieces in a large bowl with the ground spices, soy sauce, ginger and garlic pastes, beresta, oils, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Mix well to combine, then marinate for 2 hours, to overnight.
2. Thirty minutes before cooking, remove the beef from the fridge to bring to room temperature. Heat a large, heavy-based saucepan over medium-high heat, then add the marinated beef and stir constantly for 5 minutes, to ensure the beef doesn’t burn or stick to the base of the pan. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally – the beef should release some liquid.
3. Depending on the amount of water released from the beef, add up to ¾ cup hot water and cook for a further 40 minutes, or until the beef is tender.
4. To make the polao, towards the end of the beef cooking time, heat the ghee in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the cardamom, cassia (or cinnamon) and bay leaves. Add the green chillies and fry until fragrant. Stir through the ginger and garlic water and fry for a further minute.
5. Stir through the rice, mace, nutmeg, salt and sugar and cook for a further 2 minutes. Pour in the milk and water, stir and bring to the boil. Cook, stirring occasionally until the rice is half-cooked through. Bring to a light simmer and cook for a further 7 minutes, or until the rice is tender (the cook time depends on the quality of the rice). Stir through the rosewater and lemon juice. Once cooked, gently use a fork to separate the rice grains.
6. To finish the beef curry, slice the Thai green chillies in half, then add to the beef and cook for a further 5 minutes, then remove from the heat. Season to taste with salt.
7. Serve the spicy beef curry with the polao and the tomato-cucumber salad.

Note

• To make bereshta (fried onions, also called beresta and birista), you will need 2 cups thinly sliced onion and about 1 cup neutral oil, for frying. Heat some of the oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat and fry onion slices in batches until crispy. Remove from oil, drain on paper towel lined wire rack. Repeat to cook remaining onion. The process takes 20-30 minutes. Retain oil to use in curry.

• Garlic and ginger water is used when you don't want strong garlic or ginger flavours. To create 1 tablespoon of garlic water, add a tablespoon of water to garlic paste and mix well. Press against a sieve to extract the garlic water. Repeat this process with ginger paste to make ginger water.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.