Beef baked with yoghurt and black pepper

Well the Indian tour is over as of last night- we watched the final game with yet another meal courtesy of my Indian week- this baked beef with the wonderful beetroot recipe that I'll post separately. We were happy to see India win- Australia have been such bad sports this season...and of course this series of meals has put us in a distinctly subcontinental frame of mind.

PS I know my food styling skills need alot of work- this definitely tastes better than my crummy photo would have you believe!

Serves 4

Ingredients

6 tbsp of vegetable oil

900g stewing beef cubed

2 small onions, peeled and finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger

1/2 tsp of cayenne

1tbs of paprika

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

300ml natural yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 F/ gas 4)

Put the oil in a flameproof casserole-type pan (preferably one with a lid) and set over medium - high heat.

Brown the meat in batches. Put the brown meat in a separate bowl

Put onions and garlic in the same pan and turn the heat down to medium. Stir and fry this mixture till it has browned.

Return the meat to the pan.

Add the ginger, cayenne, paprika, salt and black pepper- give it a quick stir to coat the meat and onions nicely with the spices.

Add the yoghurt. Bring to a simmer.

Cover tightly with foil and then the lid and bake in the oven for 90 minutes.

Stir gently and serve.

This is quite a dry dish, so goes well with a saucy vegetable dish (was great with the Beetroot with Onions) or nice moist rice. A dab of yoghurt works well- if you're feeling like it, whip up a quick Raita.