Elk Curry

We have been here in Calgary before but we never thought of tasting any of the wild game meat. Only after we stayed in Newfoundland St. John’s and tasted moose we were excited to try all the other kinds of meat that were available in the farmer’s market.

We tried Bison meat and really liked it and even started to buy it as it is lean and tastes good. We get it fresh in the farmer’s market.

Last week we went to farmer’s market and found elk, we purchased it to try and see how it tastes. The lady at farmer’s market said that it was very lean.

Any meat cooked with curry is prepared a lot like a stew. You take some spices like fresh mint and coriander or cilantro leaves with green chilli, garlic grind it into a paste and marinate the meat.

Anyway here is the recipe.




Ingredients

1 Lb Elk stew meat
2 medium potatoes
2 Tbspn Coriander Seeds
1/4 Tsp Cumin Seeds
1/2 Inch Cinnamon Stick
2 Red Kashmiri Chilli
Small Ball Tamarind (Equal to 2 Smarties)
1 Clove
2 Peppercorn
1/2 Tsp Turmeric Powder
1/2 Cup Shredded Coconut
1/2 Medium Onion
Salt for Taste
2-3 Tsp Olive Oil


To Marinate

1/2 cup Fresh Mint+Coriander/Cilantro leaves
2 Tbsp Yogurt
1/2 Piece Green Chilli
1/2 inch Ginger
2-3 Cloves Garlic
Salt For Taste


Saute

1/2 Onion Sliced Fine
1/2 Tomato Sliced Fine
2-3 Tsp Olive Oil



Method

Cut the elk meat in small bite size pieces as the stew pieces are big.

Grind the mint leaves,coriander leaves,green chilli,ginger, garlic with yogurt and salt and marinate the meat for 3-4 hours or overnight.

Put it in a pressure cooker and pressure cooker it for about 20-30 minutes.

Once the pressure is off take the meat out of the pressure cooker. Leave the water in the pressure cooker, cut the potatoes in quarters and cook in the water which is already in the pressure cooker so that it gets the flavour of the meat.

Roast all the dry ingredients in a pan till they give a sweet aroma. Roast the shredded coconut separately till it is light golden brown. Roast the onions with 2 tsps of oil. Grind all the ingredients including the tamrind in a blender into a fine paste . Add water is required.

Take a pan and heat it, add 2-3 tsp of oil. Add the onions and tomato to the pan and saute them till the onions are translucent and the tomatoes are well cooked.

Add the ground paste to the sauteed onion and tomato, stir well. Add the pre-cooked meat and stir it well. Add the pre-cooked potatoes to the meat, stir it and let it boil well.

Add salt if needed.

Serve hot with rice, bread, chapattis or naan.

Tips: Do not stir too much otherwise the potatoes gets mushed. Take care not to burn the onion as it destroys the taste of the gravy.