Mas Ismoru (beef smoore)

The basis for this recipe from Caroline Longley comes from Charmaine Solomon's The Complete Asian Cookbook. Caroline says: "I've adapted it for the slow-cooker and changed the ingredients to things I find readily available from our Asian grocery shop (shout out to Lim Chour Manukau!). It has minimal preparation unlike some slow-cooker recipes that require a fair amount of pre-browning, yet turns an inexpensive cut of meat into something rather special.

Ingredients

2 whole	Brown onions, finely chopped
1 ½ kgs	Stewing beef, in one piece, such as eye round (Main)
6 cloves	Garlic, chopped, or use 3 tsp garlic paste
1 Tbsp	Ginger paste
1 stick	Cinnamon, or 2 tsp ground cinnamon
10	Curry leaves
1 stalk	Lemongrass, chopped, or 2 strips lemon rind with no pith (use a veggie peeler)
3 Tbsp	Curry powder, Sri Lankan if you have it (Main)
½ tsp	Fenugreek seeds
½ cup	Vinegar, ideally a light fruity vinegar such as apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
¼ cup	Tamarind, pressed and dried (Main)
1 tsp	Ground turmeric
2 tsp	Chilli powder, or to taste, depending upon how how the curry paste is! (Main)
2 tsp	Salt, or to taste
2 cans	Coconut cream (Main)
1 drizzle	Oil, or ghee for browning meat, optional
1	Lemon, or lime, juice squeezed over for serving
1 handful	Coriander leaves, for serving

Directions

1. Add the onions to the slow cooker and follow with all remaining ingredients, save the last three.
2. Open the (unshaken) tins of coconut cream and harvest the thickest, creamiest top layer from each can. Hopefully you'll obtain up to 1 cup of thicker coconut cream, more or less. Reserve this for step 4.
3. Set the slow cooker to Low and cook undisturbed for 7-8 hours until meat is meltingly tender.
4. Switch to High, take lid off and stir in reserved coconut cream. Cook uncovered for 15 minutes or until gravy is the desired consistency.
5. If you like, heat oil or ghee in a frypan and brown the cooked piece of meat on all sides, keeping gravy warm. This step is optional but adds some nice colour and depth of flavour.
6. Serve the beef thickly sliced and topped with the hot gravy, rather like a beef roast, and freshened with a squirt of lemon juice and a few coriander leaves. Excellent with basmati rice and steamed, crisp broccoli.