This salted beef curry -Kari Bef Sale-cooked with coconut milk and aubergine, is a creamy fragrant curry that will excite your taste buds. The coconut milk adds the smoothness and sweetness to an otherwise salty curry and the aubergine, with its fleshy texture, compliments the dryness of the meat. A perfect match!
- 500 g salted dried beef
- 1 medium aubergine- cubed
- 2 tins coconut milk or fresh milk from two coconuts
- 3 cloves of garlic – crushed
- ½ white onion, roughly chopped
- 1 goat chilli- sliced in two
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp curry powder
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp ginger
- Salt and pepper to taste
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Soak the salted dried beef in cold water for about two to three hours. This will dilute the salt as well as rehydrate the meat.
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Wash the meat in cold running water to remove salt on its surface
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Place the meat in a pot and boil on medium heat for about 1 hour or more depending on the cuts of meat used. A softer cut will require less boiling and vice versa.
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Remove the meat from cooking liquor and allow to cool. Reserve some cooking liquour. Taste the meat for level of saltiness. If it is still very salty, wash once more and allow to drain.
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Allow the meat to cool and manually shred it about 4 cm long and keep.This process is also called ‘pulling’.
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Heat oil in a medium size pot and sweat onion, then add garlic and ginger
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Add curry powder, mix well and let fry for about 2 minutes
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Add coconut milk, mix well and add cubed aubergine.
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Once it starts to boil, turn heat to simmer.
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Add shredded beef and the chilli, stir and let simmer for about 45 minutes. If the curry is too thick, adjust the consistency by adding some of the reserved cooking liquor.
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Serve with plain boiled rice and green pawpaw chutney and vegetable pickle-asar.
You may decide to remove the seeds from the chilli if you prefer a mild curry or add extra chilli if you want a spicy kick. The Seychellois traditionally do not remove seeds form their chilli.
When using the cooking liquor to adjust the consistency of the curry, you have to be careful because the cooking liquor may make your curry too salty. In that case adjust the consistency of your curry with some water.