gah what to make for dinner tonight? the menu has been pretty beef heavy the past few days. i've got a recipe i want to try out that is beef based but i'm going to give it a shot with chicken instead. i found this recipe in a local food magazine.
beef(or chicken in this case) beer masala with onion bhaji dumplings.serves 4

• lean beef cubes 450g
•  1 onion chopped
•  2 tablespoons curry paste
• cauliflower 150g, cut up small
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
•  beer 300ml
•  2 cloves crushed garlic
• spinach 75g

dumplings

• 1 onion sliced
•  self raising flour 175g
• butter/margarine 75g

1 in a large casserole dish place the beef cubes, onion, garlic, curry paste, cauliflower, spinach and ketchup
2 pour over the beer and mix well. cover and place in a preheated oven at 170degreeC for 2 hours, stirring half way through.
3 make the dumplings. cook the onion slices in a bit of oil for 10min until softened and golden brown. allow to cool a few minutes
4 in a bowl place the self raising flour and rub the butter in. you get a mix looking like bread crumbs. add the cooked onions. add 3 or 4 tablespoons of water and mix well. should make a smooth dough. form into balls(the easiest way to do this is just to keep dividing the dough in half until you get balls the size of quarters.  lump of dough, divide in half. 2 lumps of dough divide both in half, 4 lumps divide each in half and so on.)
put the dumplings in for the last 20min of the cooking time, leave uncovered for the remaining cooking time.
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so that's the recipe in the magazine. i tweaked it up a bit. i cut up 3 chicken breasts. i didn't use spinach since we don't have any in the house. i added 2 small potatoes and some broccoli that needed using up.  i also added some water(150ml or so) to the casserole since the ingredients were bulked up, i didn't want it to end up dry.
i cooked the dish up and fed it to my husband for his dinner. he said it was ok. he liked it but didn't love it. he said he wouldn't be sad if i lost the recipe. he liked the dumplings but felt they lacked flavor. if i do those dumplings again i would totally add a few things: a pinch of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of mild curry powder and some coriander flake would be a good start.
if you use beef the article says: braising cubes, chuck, blade or stewing cubes are all good. it's supposed to be good for cheap cuts that need a long cooking time. the beer works to soften the meat up while it slow cooks.