Saturday, April 23, 2011

Veal Stew

Mummy, did you know Easter falls on a Sunday this year?
Huh! My dear didn’t you really know it always does?!

This was one of the jokes my brother and his friends would pull on me. I might not have said anything like this, but they would improvise a story around the above joke and tell anybody listening for a laugh. I wonder if he or any of his friends knew Easter was a ‘moveable feast' and that is why it always falls on Sunday

Veal Stew

      Happy Easter to you! I am sure you always knew it falls on Sunday. 

Resurrection of Jesus on the 3rd day from his crucifixion. This is the most significant festival for Christians, in fact, bigger than Christmas. Thankfully, it is not as commercialized as Christmas and the gravity and seriousness is honored.

  You must be familiar with Easter eggs as a common feature in the celebrations here in the U.S. But growing up, I do not remember it to be important. Over the summer holidays, which fall now in India, we would color egg shells and place it on plants but that was not to celebrate Easter.  We don't even consider cooking eggs on this day in a special way.  

Veal Stew

  Then what do we do? The most important thing to do was to eat a lot of meat and fish.  It starts off with breakfast with appam and stew. Today, I will share veal stew with you which goes well with appam or white bread. Hope you enjoy it. 

Veal Stew

   Stewing as a cooking term means to cook meat and vegetables by simmering and thickening by reducing the juices or thickening the gravy with flour or any other thickening agent.  In Kerala, most cooking is slow and on stove stop, and what we call stew is slow cooked, no doubt, but generally to mean a mildly spiced meat or vegetable in coconut milk.

Stew

Ingredients:
Veal – 1.5 Lb
Garam Masala – ½ tspn
Vinegar – ½ tsp optional
Potato – 1 cubed
Pepper corns – 10
Cloves – 10
Cinnamon stick – ½ inch piece
Elachi – 3
Onions – ½
Ginger – 1 Tbspn
Garlic – 3 pods
Green Chili – 6 or as per taste
Coriander Powder – 1 tspn
Coconut Milk – 1 Can
Tomato – 4 or 5 round pieces for garnish
Oil – 2 Tbspn
Salt  - to taste

Method:

1.       1. Make bite size pieces of veal.  Take it with 1/4 tspn salt, vinegar, garam masala and ½ cup water in a pressure cooker and cook for one whistle. 
2.       2. Heat oil in a pan, add pepper corn, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon stick and fry
3.       3. Add onions and sauté for a couple of minutes. (the onions should not be browed in this curry and hence you should not sauté it for too long before you add the following. )
4.       4. Add ginger and garlic followed by green chilies and saute.
5.       5. Slide in cooked meat with all its juices, potatoes and 1 cup of thin coconut milk.  (1/2 C coconut milk + ½ C Water) and cook on low-medium heat till the potato is cooked.
6.       6. Pour the remaining coconut milk and heat through.  Top the gravy with  4 or 5 slices of tomatoes and switch off the fire

Notes:
1.       1. I thin the coconut milk further ever before I add at the final stage because I like the gravy thin.  However, traditionally the cream of coconut milk is added at the end to keep the flavor rich and gravy thick. 
2.       2. Play with the consistency to your liking.  If you feel you should not add too much water fearing the curry will spoil.  It will be a good practice to boil about 2 cups of water and how much you need to thin the coconut milk to your liking.  
3.       3. Stew is served with appam or white bread

Contributor: Sunitha

26 comments:

  1. sunitha happy easter to you as well..me on the other hand would be roaming around the streets of london looking for a mallu restaurant to have appam and stew and probably even pay a bomb for it:(

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  2. Happy Easter Sunitha

    Perfect stew for the day

    http://panchamrutham.blogspot.com/

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  3. Happy Easter Sunitha ... Love the prank ur brother pulls on u :)

    Stew looks delectable.. Have fun..

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  4. and yes I do know Easter falls on sunday :)

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  5. Happy easter to you, Sunitha..wow i am sure the meat must be really tender and juicy in this stew, alle, esp as its of veal ..Lovely purple background, i loved it..

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  6. Happy easter...perfect delicious stew..

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  7. happy easter to u as well....thx for the warm welcome with the aromatic stew.......

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  8. Happy Easter Nami... That blue silky background is awesome...chicken curyy looks so tempting :)

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  9. Lovely looking bowl of stew. Never tried Veal... Want to give it a try... YUM!

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  10. Happy easter to you tooo. The veal looks yumm and what a way to start off Easter :)
    And totally loved the purple color. The scriptures say, Jesus was made to wear a purple robe before he was crucified. And as for me, I'm a total purple addict. Hence, the blog name too :)

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  11. Happy easter to you and your family dear. The stew looks very tasty and delicious.

    Deepa
    Hamaree Rasoi

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  12. Hello Sunitha,
    Happy Easter to you! I am not a veal person but the stew looks delicious! Great Pictures!

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  13. Creamy n yummy stew...Happy Easter!!

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  14. Happy Easter Sunita... The curry looks great.. Love to have with appam..

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  15. Happy Easter to you both! This veal stew looks absolutely delicious..

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  16. Had this yesterday.
    Had this today (and hope it should be over by dinner time) :-)

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  17. Hope you had a great easter, i'm not a read meat person....i could with else :)

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  18. hope you guyz had a Happy Easter....would you believe this easter joke goes arnd in my family too...:D...i love this tender meat n' the stew looks creamy n' perfect...

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  19. Delicious recipe indeed...so creamy and nice...stew is a favorite of ours and love it with bread or appam. A happy easter to u and family.

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  20. Veal stew loks soo creamy and satisfying..Happy Easter to u and ur family..

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  21. Nice clicks. Have not tried veal..looks yum.

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  22. veal stew looks perfect and yummy...:)

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