Achaar beef with curry-spiced rice
Sweet raisins in the rice, sour pickle in the beef, and a cool green sauce to referee.
At a Glance
Story
Achaar is Indian pickle, and its job here is sourness rather than heat. The jarred version is hard to find outside a specialist shop, so tomato paste cooked hard with lime and the warm spices gets close enough: concentrated, tart, faintly bitter at the edges. Fry the spices in the oil before the paste goes in, never after, or they taste of raw powder for the rest of the evening.
Ingredients
- ½ cup long grain white rice
- 2 tbsp golden raisins
- 10 oz ground beef
- 12 oz carrotshalved lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp lime juiceplus wedges to serve
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ¼ tsp cayenne
- ¼ cup full-fat Greek yogurt
- ½ cup cilantroleaves and tender stems, finely chopped
- ⅓ cup crispy fried onions
- neutral oilsalt, pepper
Method
Ground beef, a bag of carrots and a spice drawer. The crispy onions on top are not a garnish, they are the texture the whole bowl is built around.
- Rinse the rice until the water runs clear. Into a pot with the raisins, half the cumin, a big pinch of salt and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil, drop to the lowest heat, lid on, 13 to 15 minutes without lifting it. Fluff.
- Whisk the yogurt with the cilantro and the lime juice. Season and put it in the fridge, where it will get better while you cook.
- Warm neutral oil in a large pan over medium high. Beef and carrots in together. Season, then break the meat apart and let it brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Pour off the fat.
- Push everything to one side. Into the clear space go the remaining cumin, the coriander, turmeric and cayenne, 30 seconds in the hot oil until they smell toasted.
- Tomato paste and 2 tablespoons of water. Stir the lot together and cook 1 to 2 minutes, until the carrots soften and the paste darkens to brick.
- Rice into bowls, beef over the top, a slack spoonful of the green yogurt, then a genuinely immoderate handful of crispy onions.
Lime wedges on the side. Squeeze one over everything and thank me later.
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