There is little that Simon and I love more than a curry night. Simon’s grandmother passed down the most delicious Sri Lankan curry recipes to his mum, Karen, who in turn has passed them down to Simon. We spent Saturday cooking up a delicious storm for a group of friends who came around for dinner on Saturday night. It seemed only appropriate that we include one of Nana’s ‘curry’ recipes. Yes, it’s called a curry…but only as far as it has curry powder in it. Mum has memories of these curries as a teen: ‘To make a curry you simply added some ‘Keen’s’.
Tangy Sweet Curry
You will need:
1kg chuck steak
2 celery sticks
2 large carrots
1 tspn salt
1 large onion
1 tbspn golden syrup
2 tbspn plain flour
1 tbspn curry powder
1 cooking apple
345g can tomato soup
1 cup water
1 small tin diced pineapple
juice of half a lemon
1 tbspn brown sugar
Trim the steak and cut into bite-sized pieces (we cut ours a little too big). Place in saucepan with diced celery, along with peeled and diced onion, carrot and apple.
Blend flour, curry powder, sugar, salt, golden syrup and lemon juice. Add the mixture to the meat and vegetables. Add water and mix well. Cover and simmer gently for one hour.
Add soup and pineapple. Yes, do this. Now. Then simmer gently until meat is tender. This took about 1 and a half hours, but the time will reduce if your meat is cut into smaller pieces. Serve with rice and dig in!
I was as sceptical as the next about how this would taste, and although I might be outing myself as a little less than classy, it was pretty tasty. Obviously our understanding of what a curry is has changed dramatically since the time of this recipe, however there was something rather comforting about this dish. A friend who came to dinner commented that it tasted exactly like the casseroles her grandmother used to make.
It did take all my will power not to add some more spices, maybe a little cumin for example, but I stuck to the recipe (apart from the addition of a little extra curry powder). Leftovers of this dish would make a delicious pie filling! Let me know if you try it!
Kath & Kate x
Kath & Kate 
Yum! Loved all the curries that night, especially this one! Best cooks and hosts 🙂 x
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You write so beautifully Kate! What a great blog! Best night with the yummiest food 😍👌😘 Thankyou so much x
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Thanks Soph! Great company too 😉
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Love the blog Kate, it is sooo professional looking and you write so beautifully!
Can’t wait for the next installment.
Am sending your blog link to my sister Lynda so she can show my mum Barb (87yrs) who as you know was a very good friend of Kath’s. I am sure mum will love it too.
Rachel Khoo move over!! ;-))
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Thanks Trudy! What a great idea to show it to your mum!
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Hi Kate, just shared the blog with Grandma Nancy. Am going to try the coconut slice soon and may be the curry too, as it sounds similar to something my Grandma (Simon’s great grandma) served up.
Karen x
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Oooo let me know how it goes Karen, and if you tweak it a bit! Kate x
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Hi, Kate. Have just been catching up with your blog (Karen is here for the weekend and reminded me!) the whole thing just makes me think of all my happy times cooking with MY grandma (Simon’s Great Grandma). She used to call me her ‘foreman’ as, apparently, I used to check up on her when she was cooking. I find that SO-O-O hard to believe! I can remember way back to when she was the cook at the boarding house for a girls’ school. She used to make her own cream horns and vanilla slices. Completely self-taught. A wonderful little lady. (I think Karen inherited her ‘lack of height gene’!)
Thanks for the chance to reminisce. See you in September.
Julie xx
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