Yep, that's right - 'Beef Roast', not 'Roast Beef'. We Indians tend to have this habit of arranging word couples in odd ways sometimes. Like the way we would say John uncle instead of uncle John, for example. I've been thinking about why this is and it might have something to do with literal translation from hindi. Makes sense - mystery solved....but then again I wonder where the oddity in the term 'beef roast' arose...this one doesn't seem to have as simple an explanation as the 'uncle' problem.
In the words of Shakespeare however - 'What's in a name?'
Beef roast by any other name would taste just as scrumptous. Well in any case it would if my mum lent her magical touch to it. Like I said before, my mother is a master of sorts in her cooking niche and if only I wasn't such a stubborn, impatient mule, I could learn much from her.
I did suffer a sense of deep regret at not watching and learning while she was in the kitchen the other evening, when the tantalising aroma of her beef roast came wafting down to the corridor in front of my room. Sigh...the first whiff was accidental, but it stopped me dead in my tracks - I leaned towards the wall for support as my knees started weakening, my eyes closed involuntarily and I stood there helpless for a few seconds breathing deeply, taking in every molecule of flavour that came floating through the air. When I recovered, I slowly made my way to the kitchen, uncontrollably drawn to the source of the aroma. The closer I came to the source, the weaker I became. My whole body felt hollow, as if it were begging for nourishment. By the time I reached the kitchen, every sensation was overpowering, and through a haze, I hear my mum's voice say 'Could you taste it and see if it's alright?' - the words that I look forward to more than anything else in the world. That one taste tossed my tastebuds into a frenzy and my senses danced together once more in harmony with that single essential element of taste creating the perfect finale to the performance.
That night we had a meal that was exquisite in its simplicity - hummous, muttabal, khubous and thick slices of the beef roast - lightly shallow-fried to give a slightly crisp exterior and contrast the melt-in-your-mouth softness of the interior. Ahh...my mouth still waters at the very thought of it...
There is something incredibly unique about the way my mum makes it - a family recipe I think as I have an aunt who specialises in this recipe as well. While it is basically a huge chunk of beef, it's not roasted as the name seems to imply. It's mostly boiled, sometimes cooked under pressure with a whole lot of spices, fresh ginger, fresh garlic, dried red chillies and some other ingredients I probably don't know about till almost all the water evaporates away, leaving behind a thick gravy that can do magic to any boring vegetable, or even just plain rice or bread.
Beef roast at our house is seldom eaten on its own. For the next couple of days mum mixed and matched thin long slices of the beef along with its 'masala' (the concentrated,thick gravy-like substance packed with taste) with different vegetables to give us a whole week of beef roast - flavour induced meals. I didn't complain - this is one flavour I could enjoy every day for a year if I had to!
Our favourite mix-n-match is called chilli-fry (and no, it's not fried chillis). It doesn't really have chillis actually, unless you consider green capsicum/green peppers to be chilli. Makes me wonder where that name came up from too...
Chilli fry is long slices of beef, long slices of potato, long slices of capsicum, slices of onion and slices of tomato cooked together - it tastes amazing, believe me. It's a recipe too good not to be shared, so I plan to ask my mum permission to let out the family secret and I hope to post the recipe on the blog soon - no promises, but I will try!
The next evening, we found a huge head of cabbage in the fridge that needed to be finished, so mum made two batches - one plain and one with her magic ingredient - the beef roast. I found it intriguing and absolutely incredible how the beef roast could make magic even with the lowly cabbage.
The past few days have truly been memorable taste-wise and I've finally been inspired by food after a bit of a break. :)
Till next time folks!
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