Serves: 4 – 6

This is a wonderful, western take on an Indian curry.

From the book – and restaurant – The Blue Ducks, it isn’t just the beef short rib that makes it so rich and special, though that is a pretty good start.

It’s that everything just works, right down to the late inclusion of the chickpeas, yogurt and coriander.

It really is wonderful.

I’ve written in the past about various curries that have changed the dial.

This is undoubtedly one of them and one that you should definitely try as a Sunday night treat.

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt flakes and freshly ground pepper
1.5kg – 2kg beef short ribs
2 onions, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 star anise
½ tsp chilli powder
1 cinnamon stick
5cm piece of ginger, finely grated
400gm can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp honey
500ml chicken stock
400gm can chickpeas, drained
100gm natural yoghurt
½ bunch of coriander, leaves picked

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180c.
2. Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan over a medium-high heat; season the ribs and brown on all sides. Remove the ribs and reduce the heat the medium. Add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes until soft. Add the spices and ginger and cook for a few more minutes, stirring.
3. Return the ribs to the dish, add the tomatoes, honey, stock and 400ml of water. Cover the pan and place in the oven for 3 hours; until the meat completely comes away from the bone.
4. Remove the ribs from the dish and remove all bones, sinew and fat, discarding all but the meat; reduce the consistency of the remaining liquid on the stove until thickened. Once reduced, add the chickpeas to heat through and then the beef, half the yoghurt and half the coriander.
5. Serve on rice with a dollop of the remaining yoghurt and coriander.