Convergence of Cuisines

Recipe: Beef in Chilli Garlic Sauce

The world seems to be converging, don't you think? There are people travelling to different lands and building homes there, different cultures inter-mingling and so on.

Man being the inquisitive creature that he is, has always been travelling and exploring new lands throughout history. Though in recent times, due to advances in aviation technology, travelling is much easier and more affordable.

Then again, who says that you have to travel to see the world. The power of the internet makes information about any place or anything available at our fingertips!

Amidst all this, there are different cuisines merging as people learn to adapt to different tastes and also as they try to adapt new tastes to their styles. The resulting convergent cuisine abounds in the best traits and tastes of multiple cuisines.

One such adapted cuisine that has been around is the Indo-Chinese - where the Chinese dishes/seasoning/techniques are adapted to the Indian tastes and is quite different from the actual Chinese or Indian cuisine. This flavourful and aromatic combination of ingredients is a refreshing change from the day-to-day Indian fare and is a much preferred alternative at times.

Bored with my usual dishes, I was looking for an Indo Chinese version of cooking beef. And I came upon not one but two recipes that I liked. And hence was born this dish, which is an amalgamation of those 2 recipes - one from Maria's menu from  here and another one from a popular site (pachakam.com) here.

BEEF IN CHILLI GARLIC SAUCE
A combination of the recipes from here and here.


Ingredients:

Beef - 1/2 kg (cut into small bite-sized pieces or strips)
Water to cook the beef - 1 cup
Pepper - 2 tsp
Salt to taste

To make the sauce:
Oil - 2 Tbsp
Onion - 1 medium sized, chopped finely
Green chillies - 4-5 sliced (depending on personal preference)
Garlic - 12 cloves (crushed)

Soy Sauce - 3Tbsp
Ketchup / Tomato sauce - 1 Tbsp
Plum sauce - 2 tsp

Corn flour - 2 tsp

Cook the beef in a cooker with salt, pepper and water until well done. Do not drain the water that the beef has been cooked in

In a wok or a pan, heat the oil. Saute the onions and green chillies till the onions become translucent. Add the crushed garlic and saute until you get a nice roasted smell.

Add the soy sauce, ketchup and plum sauce. Then add the beef along with the water it has been cooked in. Mix well. Bring it to a boil. Adjust the salt and add more pepper if needed.

Take 2 Tbsps of the sauce into a separate bowl and mix cornflour to it until it becomes a smooth paste. Then add this back to the wok / pan and bring it to a boil so that the sauce thickens

Switch off flame and serve hot.




We had this dish along with some vegetable noodles and enjoyed biting into the juicy morsels of beef in the hot garlic sauce which had a tiny hint of sweetness from the plum sauce :)

Since beef is rich in protein, this dish is going to Sobha's event Cook it Healthy - Proteinicious