Beef Ulathiyadhu | Beef Fry in kerala style

Beef ulathiyadhu is a very famous dish in Kerala. Mostly in households this is the only dish made with beef. And this is a must-available side dish in toddy shops alias Kallu shoppu also. Keralites have this dish with anything - rice, parotta, chapathi, dosa.... even plain.

There is lot of controversial topics and debates going on in India at the moment regarding consuming beef, sale of beef etc... I do not want to comment on that aspect. But beef meat has lot of advantages. To name a few - Beef is a very good source of iron, with perhaps the highest concentration of iron than any other commonly consumed meat. Beef is a very good source of zinc, with approximately 25 percent absorbed by the human body. Beef is a good source of both of these B12 and B6 vitamins. Half of the fat found in beef is monounsaturated, the same heart-healthy fats found in olive oil.

There are different ways of getting this done. What I am posting below is the way my MIL makes and H likes it this way. So I haven't experimented mush the other ways.

Ingredients:

To cook the Beef:

Beef - 1/2 kg, washed, drained and cut into cubes
Onion - 1 finely sliced (preferably red onions)
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
chilly powder - 1/2 tbsp
coriander powder - 3/4 tbsp
fennel seeds - 1/2 tbsp
ginger/garlic paste - 2 tbsp
Salt  - to taste

For frying:

shallots - 5 -6 finely sliced
pepper powder - 1/2 tbsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig
coconut oil - 4 tbsp
garam masala powder - 1 tsp

Method:

• Mix all the ingredients under "To cook the Beef". Add 2 tbsp of water and mix thoroughly with your hands. Let this marinate for about 2 hours.
• Cook the marinated beef in a pressure cooker. For me, it took, 1 whistle on high heat followed by 4 whistles on medium heat (i kept it in medium heat for about 6-7 minutes). It would truly depend on the quality of the beef. The beef would be almost 90% cooked (not fully cooked) by now. Do not over cook it.
• Remove it from heat and let the pressure release on its own. Only once the pressure has come down, open the cooker. 
• In a thick bottom skillet, drop in the oil. Once the oil is hot, drop in the sliced shallots and curry leaves. Saute it till golden brown. Drop in the pepper powder, stir it. 
• Drop in the cooked beef along with any water available and give it a mix. Now turn down the heat to medium and let the gravy thicken and get dried. Keep stirring them in intervals so that they don't burn and stick to the bottom and get roasted well to get the dark color.

Beef ulathiyadhu is ready!! Serve with rice or parotta.

Notes:

• Coconut slices are also added to this beef fry. But since I don't like them I generally don't add them.
• Do not cut the beef into very tiny cubes. Else they would break and would not remain in shape.
• Do not use too much of onion, else they might leave a sweet taste to the beef fry. Traditional recipe calls in for use of shallots. But using red onions is equally good. 
• Do not use too much water while cooking the beef. The water content in the beef is enough to get them cooked.
• Do not over cook the beef in the pressure cooker, else they would fall apart and loose its shape while frying.
• If you feel the beef is getting too dry, you could use a bit more of oil.

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