Sri Lankan Beef Curry is one of the most delicious curries I’ve eaten. Chunks of beef are slow-cooked until they’re really tender in a flavorful coconut sauce. It smells great and is even better to eat! Serve it traditionally with Hoppers and carrots with a tropical flavors.
Sri Lankan Beef Curry with Coconut Milk and Hoppers
A whole lot of countries influenced Sri Lankan cuisine. Arab, Malay, Portuguese, Dutch, and British travelers have all had some input on the local cuisine. Therefore it’s impossible to generalize the Sri Lankan cuisine.
Staples that are often used are rice, coconut, and spices. Sri Lanka is historically famous for its cinnamon. Central in this cuisine are Curries. These are served with rice and vegetables. Besides this beef curry, there are lots of other variations like a chicken curry, roasted curry and delicious vegetarian curry. Yes Sri Lanka has a lot to offer.
And this delicious and easy Beef curry recipe, flavored with cinnamon, coriander, and cumin and stewed in coconut milk, is one of those delightful curries. It’s served with homemade hoppers (Appams, Rice pancakes) and grated carrots cooked in coconut milk.
Those three dishes combined give a delicious dinner. Creamy, not too spicy, but with lots of great flavors. You’ll love it!
What do you need for Appams with Beef Curry?
To prepare this Sri Lankan Beef Curry and Hoppers, you need the following ingredients. You can find the correct amounts in the recipe card at the bottom of the blog:
Ingredients Sri Lankan Beef Curry
- Braising Steak: Slowly cooking this meat in the most delicious spices and coconut milk becomes tender and flavorful. You could also use beef chuck or chuck roast.
- Curry leaves: Taste a bit herbal, like basil or kaffir lime. You almost can’t buy them fresh (at least not around here) because fresh leaves can contain bacteria that will cause a disease in citrus fruit trees (and that bacteria isn’t here yet). You can’t compare it with curry powder, which is a spice mixture. Substitute it with kaffir lime or bay leaves.
- Red pepper: Gives this beef a bit of spice.
- Onion, turmeric, coriander, cumin, and cinnamon stick: Flavor the curry.
- Tamarind pulp: Is a fruit that has got a sour taste. It’s used in stews to make the meat tender (just like vinegar or lemon juice would do). For this recipe, tamarind pulp is used. You could substitute it with a combination of one tablespoon of lemon juice and one tablespoon of brown sugar.
Ingredients Hoppers (Appams)
- Rice: Use a combination of uncooked rice and cooked rice. You can use both white or brown rice (and mix it up).
- Yeast: This recipe uses one teaspoon of instant yeast. If you prefer to use fresh yeast, you need ¼ oz. If you use dry yeast, you also need one teaspoon.
- Sugar: to make sure the yeast will do its job (it needs sugar to get starting)
- Coconut milk: Use the thick and creamy part of the coconut milk (when opening a can, it’s always on the top)
Ingredients Carrots with Tropical Flavors
- Carrots: Grate them coarse. You’ll need about 1 pound.
- Curry leaves: See beef curry ingredients.
- Red pepper: Gives some spice to the carrots.
- Rice vinegar: Enhances the flavors of the carrots (lime juice or lemon juice will also do the trick)
- Sugar: Brings out the sweetness of the carrots.
- Coconut milk: Extracted from the juice of grated pulp of coconuts. It’s got a slightly sweet, rich, and full flavor.
- Shallot: To give more flavor to the carrots.
How to prepare Hoppers, Beef Curry and Tropical Carrots
You can find a printable recipe with a step-by-step description at the bottom of this blog.
Preparation Beef Curry
- Roast the dry spice mixture in a skillet for 3 minutes. Grind to a powder.
- Heat oil in a frying pan and add the shallot, pepper, turmeric, and curry leaves; stir fry for 3 minutes.
- Add the meat and brown on all sides for 5 minutes. Next, add the coconut milk and dry spice mixture. Stir and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
- Sieve the soaked tamarind and add extra water to the put. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for two to three hours until the meat is tender.
Preparation Sri Lankan Hoppers
- Soak the uncooked rice for 3 hours in water. Dissolve the sugar in water and add the yeast; let it start working. Drain the rice and grind in a kitchen machine. Add the cooked rice. Grind until you’ve got an almost got a smooth mixture.
- Put the grind rice in a bowl and add the yeast mixture. Mix everything well.
- Cover with plastic foil and put in a warm place for about 8 - 12 hours. It will smell a bit sour and got a distinctly yeasty smell. Add coconut milk and mix.
- Heat a skillet on medium heat. Brush the bottom with oil. Pour a bit of batter (about ¼ cup, depending on the size of the frying pan). Give it a quick swirl. Cover the skillet and cook for 2 minutes. When the center is puffed up and is a bit shiny, loosen the edges with a spatula and take the hopper out of the pan. Serve hot.
Preparation Tropical flavored Carrots
- Pour oil into a skillet and add curry leaves, peppers, and shallots. Stir-fry for 3 minutes until the shallots are translucent.
- Add the grated carrots, vinegar, salt, and sugar and mix. Turn the heat to high and stir-fry for 3 minutes.
- Add water and coconut milk and bring it to a boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Then add the remaining coconut milk and coconut leaves. Simmer for 3 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and flavor with salt. Transfer to a plate and serve hot or at room temperature.
Serve the Hoppers with beef curry and grated carrots. I assure you you don’t need anything more.
Garnish the carrots with cilantro leaves or parsley.
Did you make this recipe? Tag #byandreajanssen via Instagram. I enjoy seeing what your creation looks like. Video recipes can be found on my YouTube channel. And don't forget to save the recipes on Pinterest so you can easily find them next time!
📖 Recipe
Servings: persons
Ingredients
Sri Lankan Hoppers makes about 14
- 1½ cups raw rice
- 1 teaspoons yeast instant
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ½ cup water room temperature
- 2 tablespoons white rice cooked
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup coconut milk thick, the top of an can when it's not shaken
Carrots with tropical flavors
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 8 curry leaves
- 1 red chili pepper deseeded, chopped finely
- ½ shallot shallots chopped finely
- 1 pound carrots coarsly grated
- 2 teaspoons rice vinegar I used lime juice instead
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- ½ cups coconut milk
- ¼ cup water
Sri Lankan Beef curry
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 10 curry leaves fresh, dried or frozen
- 1 red chili pepper deseeded, chopped finely
- 2 onions finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 pound Braising steak cut into 1 inch (2 cm) cubes
- ½ cup coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
- ¼ cup water hot
- 3 cups water
Dry spice mixture
- 1 tablespoon white rice uncooked
- 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 inch cinnamon piece
Ingredients you need per step are listed below the step in Italic
Instructions
Appams
- Soak the raw rice in 4 to 5 cups of water for 3 hours. You can soak it overnight, although I did not try that.1½ cups raw rice
- Dissolve the sugar in the 120 mL coconut water or plain water and add the yeast.1 teaspoons yeast, 2 teaspoons sugar, ½ cup water
- Set aside in a warm area for 10-15 minutes, until very frothy.
- Drain the rice and grind it in a blender with the yeast mixture to make a smooth batter. You can add a bit of extra water if needed, but I didn't.
- Add the cooked rice, and grind/blend to combine well. You can see that it isn't completely smooth, but very thick—that’s about right.2 tablespoons white rice
- Pour into a large bowl, cover, and leave in a warm place for 8-12 hours.
- When it's ready, it will have a slightly sour and distinctly yeasty smell. Don’t worry--they are mild tasting when cooked!
- Add the coconut milk and salt, and a bit of water if necessary, so that you have a batter that is just a bit thicker than milk. Notice how it bubbles after you add the coconut milk. I recommend test-cooking one before thinning the batter.½ cup coconut milk, ½ teaspoon salt
- Heat your pan over medium heat. Wipe a few drops of oil over it using a paper towel. Stir the batter and pour in 3-4 tablespoons, depending on the size of the pan.
- Working quickly, hold the handle(s) and give the pan a quick swirl so that the batter comes to the top edge. Swirl once only, as you want the edges to be thin and lacy.
- Cover the pan and cook for about 2 minutes. Uncover and check. The center should have puffed up a bit, but is dry to the touch.
- When ready, loosen the edges with a small spatula and serve immediately. These need to be served hot out of the pan.
- Repeat preparing Hoppers, until all the batter is used.
Carrots with tropical flavors
- Place a deep skillet with a tight-fitting lid over medium-high heat.
- Add the oil, then add half of the curry leaves, red pepper, and the shallots.1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 8 curry leaves, 1 red chili pepper, ½ shallot shallots
- Cook for 3 minutes, stirring. Add the carrots, stir, and add the vinegar, salt, sugar, and mix well.2 teaspoons rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon sugar, 1 pound carrots
- Increase the heat and stir-fry for 3 minutes.
- Add the water and half of the coconut milk and bring to a fast boil.½ cups coconut milk, ¼ cup water
- Stir, cover tightly, and cook until just tender, 5-10 minutes, depending on size. Mine took about 5 minutes.
- Check to ensure the liquid has not boiled away and add a little more water if it is almost dry.
- Add the remaining coconut milk and curry leaves.
- Simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.
- Transfer to a bowl and serve hot or at room temperature.
Sri Lankan Beef curry
- In a small heavy skillet, roast the dry spice mixture over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring continuously, until it smells amazing! You will be able to see that the rice is a toasted color.1 tablespoon coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 inch cinnamon, 1 tablespoon white rice
- Transfer to a (small) kitchen machine and grind to a powder. Set aside.
- Chop the tamarind pulp and soak it in the hot water. Set aside1 tablespoon tamarind paste, ¼ cup water
- In a large, wide pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat.1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Add the curry leaves, red pepper, onion and turmeric and stir-fry for 3 minutes.10 curry leaves, 1 red chili pepper, 2 onions, 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- Add the coconut milk and dried spice mixture and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so all surfaces of the meat get browned.½ cup coconut milk
- Add the meat and salt and cook for 5 minutes, occasionally stirring, so all flesh surfaces get browned.1 pound Braising steak, 1 teaspoon salt
- Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Press the soaked tamarind through a sieve placed over a bowl. Use a spoon to press all the liquid and pulp out. Discard the seeds and stringy bits.
- Add the tamarind liquid and water to the pot and bring to the boil.3 cups water
- Reduce the heat and cook uncovered at a strong simmer for two hours, until the meat is tender and the flavors are well blended.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve hot.
Notes
1. Braising Steak: Slowly cooking this meat in the most delicious spices and coconut milk, it becomes tender and flavorful. You could also use beef chuck or chuck roast.
2. Curry leaves: Taste a bit herbal, like basil or kaffir lime. You could substitute it with kaffir lime or bay leaves.
3. Tamarind pulp: For this recipe, tamarind pulp is used. You could substitute it with one tablespoon of lemon juice and one tablespoon of brown sugar combined.
4. Rice: Use a combination of uncooked rice and cooked rice. You can use both white or brown rice (and mix it up).
5. Yeast: This recipe uses one teaspoon of instant yeast. If you prefer to use fresh yeast, you need ¼ oz. If you use dry yeast, you also require one teaspoon.
6. Storage
Hoppers - don’t store fried appams. Eat them right away. You can keep the batter in the refrigerator for up to two days.
Beef Curry and tropical carrots
- Refrigerator: You can store the beef curry and tropical carrots, covered, for up to two days in the fridge.
- Freezer: Freeze the beef curry and carrots in a freezer box or bag. This way they will keep good for two months. Let them thaw in the refrigerator.
- Reheat: Warm the beef curry and the carrots on low heat until hot. Then, add a splash of water to ensure it won’t dry.
Nutrition
Calories: 363kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 19g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.03g | Cholesterol: 46mg | Sodium: 1079mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 14002IU | Vitamin C: 119mg | Iron: 4mg
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