This is a Ghanaian party special, colourful fried rice with diced curried beef. It’s usually cooked in large batches to serve to you guests.
Prep time: 20 minutes/Cook time 60 minutes/Serves: 6
Ingredients:
For the Meat:
1.5kg (3 lbs) frying beef, diced (excess fat trimmed off) [brisket is good]
2 tbsp onion paste
1 tbsp chopped habanero chillies
1 tbsp ginger paste
1 tbsp garlic paste
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp all-purpose seasoning/chicken bouillon cube, crumbled
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tbsp soy sauce, for flavouring the beef
For the Rice:
500g (4 cups) long grain rice, thoroughly rinsed
4 tbsp oil
a handful chopped red onions
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp all purpose seasoning or chicken bouillon cube, crumbled
4 whole chillies (finger/Thai/piri-piri)
1/4 tsp curry powder
250ml (1 cup) reserved stock from cooking the beef
750ml (3 cups) water
For the Fried Rice:
1 small red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
6 spring onions, cut into rounds
2 carrots, peeled and diced
Oil from frying beef
Strained meat residue
kernels sliced from 1 corn cob
65g (1 cup) cooked black beans
1 tbsp finely-minced garlic
1 tbsp finely-minced ginger
1 tbsp chopped chillies
1 tsp all purpose seasoning or chicken bouillon
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp crushed black peppercorns
Method:
Add the meat to a pot, along with all the remaining ingredients (except the soy sauce). Bring to a simmer, cover and cook in the meat juices for 10 minutes. Add 125ml (1/2 cup)water, return to a simmer, cover and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, until the meat is tender. Remove the beef with a slotted spoon and set aside. Pass the contents of the pot through a fine-meshed sieve into a bowl, squeezing with a spatula to extract as much of the liquid as possible. Set this aside for later. Also reserve the residue in the sieve.
Heat 60ml (1/4 cup) in a pan, once hot add a handful of red onion. Add the beef and fry for about 5 minutes until browned. Remove the beef and set aside in a bowl then mix with 1 tbsp soy sauce. Reserve the oil.
Now start cooking the rice: Heat the oil in a pan, add the red onion, whole chillies and stir in the curry powder, all-purpose seasoning. Cook for 1 minute then add the rice and stir to coat in the oil. Stir in the reserved beef cooking liquid as well as 500ml (2 cups) water. Cover the pot with a clean cloth and sit the lid on top. Let the rice steam for 15 minutes, until the grains are almost tender and the liquid has all been absorbed.
Remove the chillies, fluff the rice with a fork then take off the heat, cover and allow to steam for a further 5 minutes. This will finish the cooking of the rice and helps dry it out.
Place a wok or deep pan over medium-high heat. Add the oil from frying the beef and when hot add the reserved meat cooking residue. Stir into the oil then add the minced ginger, minced garlic, minced chillies and all-purpose seasoning. Stir to combine then add the onion and fry for 30 seconds. Add the corn kernels followed by 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Continue stir-frying for 1 minute then add the carrots, followed by the black beans. Stir well to combine, cook for 30 seconds the add the bell pepper pieces. Stir-fry for 30 seconds more than add the spring onions.
Remove half the vegetables and transfer to a plate. Add half your rice and half the beef to the vegetables remaining in the wok, stirring well to combine. It’s best to cook the rice in two batches as this makes things more manageable. Once everything is nicely combined and warmed through, transfer to a bowl and set in a low oven to keep warm as you mix the remaining ingredients together for the second batch.
Serve everything hot.
