Curry Beef with Quinoa

I've always steered clear of curry. I'm not sure why, maybe the other ingredients that you put WITH the curry made me nervous. I mean it's not every day I'm asked to add a spice in a foreign language to my crockpot. Nor anything resembling elmers glue! So, I'm sad to say I'd never tried to make curry anything until today.

Now I'm happy to report that it was not only a successful dinner, but a successful freezer meal as well! Hooray! Which means, of course, it will be chronicled here. So I can make it again and again.

Ingredients:

3lbs of tri-tip cut into large chunks (or some other meat you want to curry. I'm quite certain this will work splendid with chicken, which I will try!)
1 1/2 tablespoons curry
1 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
Lots of garlic. I used about 1/4 cup of chopped garlic (or one WHOLE large head of garlic chopped or pressed thru a garlic press) It looks like too much, really it does. But it's not.
1 large onion, diced
1 (13.5oz) can coconut milk
2 Gallon sized freezer bags

Freezer Directions:


Add coconut milk (everything in the can! Even the glue stuff-- lol) to one gallon sized zip lock bag. Smoosh it up with your hands and mix up all the yummy milk.

Add to the same bag all the onions and garlic and smoosh it up good. See the theme here? No dirty dishes!

Next add some cut meat then some of the spices. Then more meat, more spices, until you are done with all the meat and all the spices.

Immediately press the air from the bag and seal it up. Place in additional zip lock (to prevent leaks when it defrosts).

Cooking:

The day before you want to stick it in your crockpot, take it out and allow it to thaw in your refrigerator. Just before you stick it in your crockpot, run the bag under some warm water to get the hardened coconut paste off the sides of the bag then pour it into the crockpot. If you still feel like you were cheated on bits sticking to the sides of the bag, run the closed bag under hot water again until they all shake free. Then cut a tip in your bag and pour the bits into the crock.

Note, it won't look very good. But it will smell and taste amazing.

Cook on low 8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.


I made beef Quinoa with my Curry Beef, which also tuned out delish! So here is that recipe.

1 cup quinoa
2 cups beef broth
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Rinse quinoa well. Heat sauce pan on med-high with olive oil. Dry out the quinoa in the olive oil as best you can. This gives it a little more nuttier of a flavor and my kids said they loved it far more then plain quinoa. Add beef broth and bring to a boil. Cover and cook on medium about 15 minutes or until most of the broth is absorbed. Take off the burner and let sit for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork.