Beef Fry & a me-me tag :)

This is one of my fav beef preparations. I like beef in any form, but this one has an edge over other beef dishes :). I’ve posted a similar recipe sometime back. The main change in this recipe is the use of small onions.

Also I’ve been tagged by Divz ( I assume that she is referring to me “Maria” :) ) to write 25 random facts about me. Its first time am being tagged and am excited about it. Thanks a lot Divz for that :).

I will write the recipe first and then 25 random facts. Those of you who  are interested & have time can read the me-me :)

Here is the recipe:

1. Beef – 1/2 kg
2. Onion – 1 big, sliced finely
3. Small onion – 1/2 – 3/4 cup, sliced
   Chili powder – 1/2 tbsp
   Coriander powder – 1tbsp
   Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
   Ginger & garlic – 1/2 – 1 tbsp, crushed
   Vinegar – 2 tsp
4. Aniseeds/fennel – 1/2 – 1 tsp
   Cinnamon – 1 inch piece
   Cloves – 4-5
   Star anis – 2
5. Garam Masala – 1/2 – 1 tsp (optional)
6. Bite size coconut pieces (thengakothu) – 1/4 – 1/2 cup
7. Coconut oil
   Salt
   Curry leaves

Powder the number 4 ingredients and keep aside. Combine the powdered spices, number 3 ingredients, tiny coconut pieces, salt, curry leaves & beef. Make sure that beef is marinated well with the spices. Pressure cook the marinated beef till it is done. I usually dont add water while cooking, but if you want you can add 2-3 tbsp of water. If there is any water left, after pressure cooking, cook till the water is dried.

Heat oil in a pan and saute the onions, till it becomes golden brown. Add the cooked beef & curry leaves. If you want you can sprinkle garam masala at this stage. Mix well. Stir over a low flame, till it is roasted well.Serve with rice and kachimoru or chapathi, puttu, appam etc;

You can see other beef recipes here.

Notes: The original recipe doesnt call for garam masala, I added it since I like it to be spicy. You can be a bit generous with oil, if you want a well roasted/fried  beef.

Recipe adapted from: Flavours of Kerala

25 Random Facts About Me…

Now, we will go to the 25 random facts about me. Before you read, I would like to bail out on something. Am not good in writing, so if there are some mistakes, please bear with me :)

1. If you put me on an extrovert-introvert scale, I will be slightly pointing towards the introvert one.
2. I don’t like the idea of a full time job. The thought of sitting in an office for a full day for n number of years drives me crazy. Luckily for me I had to do a full time job only for six months and then Jose came riding on a horse and rescued me ;).
3. I like to sing and dance but my talents in both equals the numerical value of zero, hhmmm. I even attended some music class but one day after listening to my soulful singing, my music sir suddenly became philosophical. He told me” Maria, God has blessed different people with different talents, I think God has blessed you so much with some other talent and that is dominating over your music talent”!! That was like shooting my future in music at point blank :( The only place I can sing freely is in church and I utilize that opportunity to the fullest (I do pity those people standing next to me). Knowing this my mom never stands next to me when we go for mass in Kerala, she makes sure that she is standing 10 feet away from me :). After marriage, I’ve a loyal listener, Jose :). I think he is just standing it because he doesn’t want to break the marriage vows of being with me in good and bad times ;)
4. I’ve an irrational fear of dogs and cats and for that matter almost any animal. Somehow I’ve got the talent of sensing a dog and cat within a radius of 1 km (may be that’s my dominating talent!). I refuse to take a step further if I see a dog and cat. I don’t hate them, but am too scared of them. This is something I really want to overcome, but I fail every time miserably :((. When I was in Bangalore, where the roads belong to the street dogs (thanks to Maneka Gandhi), I used to have nightmares daily of being bitten by a dog. In Bangalore I used to walk on roads like a Z category (security) person, surrounded by my friends. Once I was going for dinner with my friends and a dog started following us, though my friends were protecting me, I was scared to the core and started running and finally I got into an auto. The dog followed me and stood there barking. The driver asked me where I wanted to go, I said I just want to get rid of that dog, so he wanted me to get out of that auto immediately. On one side my friends are standing and asking me what’s happening, on the other side the dog is standing and barking, on the front the driver is shouting at me. On top of that, two of our classmates passed by, they were surprised to see me in auto alone at that time and they were like “hey Maria, where are you going now, meeting any boyfriends” I was like GOOOOOOOOOOD SAVE ME!!!!! My adventures with dogs and cats are never ending…
5. I am very much an impulsive buyer and a first class shopaholic. Retail therapy can do wonders for me :) I miss my shopping trips with my Amma. On all Saturday afternoons, after her office hours, we used to go window shopping. Really miss those days :((
6. I like reading, discussing and debating about politics, be it Kerala, India or International. I’ve a soft corner for Kerala politics because that’s almost like watching a pucca masala/commercial movie. I love discussing/debating politics with my Appa and even now I call him once in a while just for that :)
7. The first thing I want to do in the mornings is to read Malayala Manorama Newspaper with a cup of coffee/tea. That’s the habit I’ve from my primary school days :) I really missed that during my 2.5 years of stay in Banglore. If I dont read Manorama in the mornings, I feel something’s missing.
8. I’ve a very strong reflex. At times I scare people with my reflex :(. For example when am sitting in the car, and if I see a low-lying branch of a tree, I automatically duck. Jose has warned me to relax; otherwise I will be shifted to the back seat
9. I am very weak in Hindi. Am always confused with ka, ke, ki or ha, hein, hoom etc; It takes me 5-10 minutes to construct a simple sentence in Hindi :(.
10. Sports and me do not get along. But there is slight improvement recently, Jose has started teaching me swimming and table tennis, dont know when he too will become philosophical like my music teacher ;)
11. I miss being bugged by my bro. I think I’ve written before that he calls my blog internet cooking fraud :) and nowadays he is coaching his 3 year old son, in bugging me and I think he will overtake his dad pretty soon.
12. I had a strong aversion to computer. I went to 3,4 different places to learn computer and everywhere it started and ended with Charles Babbage being the father and binary being the language of computer. I didnt go beyond that stage, I was stuck in the Charles Babbage era of comp. I didnt even know how to chat 4 years ago!!! Now my days starts and ends with chatting and on top of all those things, I’ve a blog!!! All credit goes to Jose, thank you my dearest for having the patience to fast forward me from Charles Babbage era to Mac era :)
13. I treasure my friends a lot. I try my best to keep in touch with them and be there for them.
14. This is something, I’ve written before. I dont eat fruits in raw form.
15. I strongly believe in the concept of guardian angel. It’s something my grandparents taught me during my childhood days.
16. The first words I write with a new pen/pencil are Jesus Mary Joseph. My Amma taught me that.
17. Am embarrassed to write this one, I dont know to ride a bicycle. I drive car but bicycle :((. My bro tried teaching me to ride two-wheeler, but that time I was more interested in showing off than learning. Whenever I was riding two wheeler, instead of looking straight I looked side ways to see whether people are seeing my riding capabilities and that made my bro crazy, so my two wheeler driving lessons came to an end :(
18. I like to live in a noisy place rather than a calm place. I can enjoy the serenity for 3-4 hours max after that the calmness scares me.
19. Cochin and Bombay are my all time fav places.
20. I find it really hard not to honk while driving :). My bro makes fun of me by saying ‘Maria will drive even f there is no brake and clutch, but if horn is not there, she will be in a fix ;) It was really difficult for me to not to honk in Bahrain. Jose had a hard time convincing me that am driving ok, even if am not honking :)
21. I love watching movies, especially romantic comedies. I can watch 3-4 movies a day ;)
22. I love rains and I really miss it living in Bahrain. These days we try to go to India during monsoon season to enjoy the rain :)
23. When I learnt driving initially, I was scared to drive on busy roads. But, I find a solution for that. Start driving when the roads are practically empty, gain confidence and then venture on to busy roads. You don’t have to wait till midnight or early mornings for empty roads. Just wait for hartal/bandh (strike) days ?. Kerala being the dream destination of hartal supporters, you are assured a minimum of 4-5 hartal days a month. In a way, am indebted to hartal for giving me the confidence to drive ;)
24. Am a hypochondriac of med-high standard. I used to get health magazines and ended up with diagnosing one disease per day kind of. It continued till Jose banned all health magazines in the house. But still I do the diagnosis with the help of google search n mayo clinic :)
25. I should write something about food right? after all I’ve a food blog. I love bakery food. I used to live on bakery food during my school days. Even now when I go to a bakery am like a “nilavathu azhichu vitta kozhi” :) Seeing my love for bakery items, my aunts used to say “ninne oru bakery karane kondu kettikkam” (we will get you married to a bakery owner). Secretly, I loved that idea. The thought of unlimited supply of meat puffs, laddoos, jilebis, jam rolls etc on a daily basis was too much to resist ;). Looks like that option is still there. Though Jose is an I banker now, it’s his childhood dream to start a bakery! So I guess we were destined to meet, a bakery obsessed girl getting married to a bakery owner ;)

I would like to pass this to Ammu, Ria, Divya, Happy Cook, Rachel, Priya, Seena, MS.

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