February 22, 2025 | Awake & Dreaming

Not the ideal start to the weekend. I tried to go to bed at 11 pm last night. After work, I shut down my work laptop, had a quick dinner with my mom – dad already having had his and gone to lie down in bed – and then I took an orange and some grapes and went back to my room and sat at the laptop till 11 pm. With the tv not having any sound I didn’t have anything to watch; I could have watched something on my laptop but I decided against that and just thought of watching some Instagram reels before I fell asleep.

I ended up falling asleep within minutes, which was a good thing. For some reason I ended up waking up at 2 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. So I did what I usually would do, that is get up from bed, as I wanted to pee anyways. I went online and watched videos, played some games on my phone, played some music till about 5pm. Sleepiness caught up with me and I went to bed and managed to sleep till 9:30 am. I hate when this happens as I would like to sleep for 6 to 7 hours atleast and then wake up at 6 or 7 am.

Morning was spent at my desk once again, getting up only to visit the loo, get two cups of coffee and breakfast ofcourse. Scatter in a few chats with mom & dad. At 2pm we had a quick lunch and I had an orange after that. By 3pm I took a quick nap, having retired to my bed and trying to watch more Instagram reels, managing a nap for over an hour and some minutes. At 5 15 pm I got up for our evening coffee and snack. Dinner was Subway sandwich and cookies for me while my parents had KFC and we all had 7up to drink. I’m watching football on my laptop and will most likely go to bed by 11.

Indian do not eat beef – take that information and throw it out along with the garbage! Some Indians do eat beef while the vast majority does not. Kerala Beef Fry is a classic South Indian dish made with a few simple spices, coconut slices, and curry leaves. It’s pressure cooked then lightly fried in coconut oil.

Ingredients

Beef (chuck roast), 2lb, 3/4″ cubed
Coconut Oil, 3 tbsp it ain’t called beef “fry” for nothing
Shallots (6) or Red Onion (2), thinly sliced
Garlic Cloves, 3, minced
Curry Leaves, 1 sprig

Marinade

Red Onion, 1, diced
Green Chili, 2, diced
Ginger, 2″, minced
Garlic Cloves, 8, minced
Coconut Slices, 1/2 cup, (fresh or frozen)
Curry Leaves, 1 sprig
Salt, 1-2 tbsp
Meat Masala*, 1 tbsp
Coriander Powder, 2 tbsp
Red Chili Powder, 1 tbsp
Turmeric Powder, 1 tsp

How to Make Meat Masala

Green Cardamom, 1/4 cup
Fennel Seeds, 1/3 cup
Cloves, 1 tbsp
Cumin Seeds, 1 tbsp
Cinnamon Stick, 2
Dry Red Chilis, 8

Instructions

Make the meat masala.

In a small saute pan on medium-low heat, add all of the spices. Toast the spices just until warm and you can smell the aroma of the spices. Once the spices cool down, add the spices in a small spice grinder or blender. Grind until a slightly coarse powder forms. Store in an air-tight container.

Marinate the beef.

In a large bowl or in the pot of your pressure cooker, add all of the ingredients under the marinade section, then mix together.
Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.

Cook the beef.

After the beef is marinated, pressure cook the beef on high for 10 minutes (about 4 whistles).
You do not need to add water to this. Moisture will naturally extract from the beef as you pressure cook it.
Do not discard the moisture from the pressure cooked beef.

Fry the beef.

In a wide/deep pan (or uruli) on medium high heat, add the coconut oil.
Once the oil is hot, add in the shallots, garlic, and curry leaves
Saute until lightly golden then add in the cooked beef along with its juices.
Continue to stir the beef around in your pan so that it evenly fries and encourages the moisture to reduce. This usually takes 15-20 minutes.
About halfway through, sprinkle in about 1-2 tsp of meat masala over the beef and then continue frying
The beef is done frying when all the moisture is gone and a gravy/spice coating has formed on the beef. That’s it! Serve with some hot Kerala porotta!