Food is music ..music is food..

" The Indians are the Italians of Asia. It can be said that the Italians are the Indians of Europe, but you do understand me, I think..Every man in both countries is a inger when he is happy, and every woman is a dancer when she walks to the shop at the corner. For them,food is music in the body, and music is food inside the heart."

I had been reading the book Shantaram the other day, and these lines, penned by Gregory David Roberts struck me as soo true..We Indians wax lyrical about our food.All our important festivals and events are centered around food and music. These two go hand in hand.
As for me, I love music. My Ipod is like my umbilical cord for me. Stuffed with happy hip hop songs (malayalam, tamil, hindi, english,kannada..)..When I am in the kitchen working, it doesn't seem like work when I have music flowing around me. And now, afetr reading these lines, I have the best explanation ..
Food is music inside the body, music is food inside the heart...


NAADAN BEEF CURRY

Ingredients:

Beef chopped and cleaned 500 gm(1/2 kg)
Onion sliced finely 2
Tomato sliced finely 1 small
Green chilly slit in half 6-8 nos.
Ginger garlic paste 1 tbsp
Coconut Oil 5-6 tbsp
Salt 1 tbsp
Pepper 1 tsp
Assorted spices.......(turmeric-1tsp, Chilli powder -2 tsp, Coriander powder- 3 heaped tsp, Cumin seeds powdered(perumjeerakam)2 tsp)...heat together on low flame till dark brown in colour, and you get a nice spicy smell in the kitchen.
Curry leaves 2 stalks


Method:

1. Take all the ingredients, except for pepper, and put into a pressure cooker.

2. Mix well till all the ingredients have been well blended. Keepaside ,covered , for some time.(ten to thirty minutes)

3. Pressure cook on high flame till the whistle sounds. Then lower heat and cook on low flame for 20 minutes.

4. Open cooker after 15 minutes only. The beef will be well cooked but the gravy will be watery. Keep the cooker open and boil again till gravy becomes a bit more thicker.

5. Add pepper, serve hot with coconut rice, paratha, puttu, bread..anything!!

Tip:
If you add 1/2 a tsp of ricepowder or appom batter to the watery ravy, it will turn thick faster.