Sri Lankan Bean Curry

Oh I have been away for too long again! The last week of work at ISR was busy and thus I just cooked a lot of curry so that it would last for a few meals. Each day topping it up with a new curry or two.

Green beans are one of our all time favourites. Everyone in our home loves bean curry. I've been trying for years to replicate my aunts curries and have never been successful, but I think I've found the trick. Read on to find out the secret to an awesome curry!

Ingredients:

500 g	Green beans
2 tbsp.	Oil
2 medium	Onions
1/2 tsp.	Dill seeds
1 sprig	Curry leaves
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric
1/2 tsp.	Salt
1/2 tsp.	Chili powder
2 tsp.	Curry powder (unroasted)
3 heaped tbsp.	Coconut milk powder
1 tsp.	Roasted curry powder

Method:

One of the biggest secrets is how you actually cut the beans. I always thought the beans were cut on a diagonal, so I spent years trying to cut them thinner and more slanted but never achieving the right effect. It sounds kind of silly, why did I just not ask? Well usually when I go to any of my aunt's places I'm so busy stuffing my face with delicious food that I forget about asking how everything was made. But my mother finally discovered the trick, quite by accident, and conveyed it to me (quite by accident!)

Not so long ago my mum visited my aunt and they were preparing a bean curry for a lot of people. So they asked all the womenfolk around for their help to prepare the beans. My mother found an almost blunt knife (her story, not mine!) thrust into her hands with the instructions to split the beans down the middle. My mother was so horrified by the task (complete exaggeration!) that she told me all about it during our next skype call. And BINGO, I got the secret to the perfect curry, split the beans down the middle. Here is a picture of what I mean:

Needless to say, since receiving this wonderful news I've only made one perfect bean curry. The way mine eat beans I just don't have the time to split them. Here are few done especially for you:

Once you've split them you just cut them diagonally.

For the most part I cut mine diagonally. It's just the only way to go when you have 500 g of beans and at most an hour to cook a meal with at least 3 curries (this is the standard in our house, 3 or more).

But once you've got them cut the procedure is pretty simple. 

Take two smallish onions and thinly slice them. Then heat some oil in a saucepan and once it is hot add the onions, dill seeds and curry leaves. Fry these until the onions start to colour and then put in the cut beans.

Here is trick number two for the perfect bean curry. DO NOT close the lid of the saucepan. I learnt this trick from a friend of my parents who has since left us. She always told me "never close the lid on the beans, they will lose their lovely green colour.", and I have followed her instructions to this day.

Stir fry the beans and add the tumeric, curry powder, salt and chili powder. Continue to fry and stir. Don't let anything burn. I fry like this for as long as I can get away with. But it is not very long. The worst thing is a burnt bean curry. I have bad memories of burnt bean curry cooked by my sister when she was very young. Not her fault of course and I was probably exaggerating. Oh! so I fry this for about 1-2 minutes on high heat. 

Next step is to add in a cup of water. I don't add too much water because I really want the curry to be dry. I could cook off the water at the end but then I would end up with over cooked beans. Which we are not very fond of. Later you can add water as necessary. Let the beans simmer until they are just cooked and there is almost no water left. The time this takes depends on how tough your beans are. I know for sure they take forever to cook in Sri Lanka and here in Germany I can cook them within about 20 minutes. It also depends on how you cut them so you just have to keep adding water as necessary and checking them every now and then. 

Then add in the coconut milk. I add very thick coconut milk, so either the cream on the top of the can or some coconut milk powder directly into the pan (be careful though, if the water is too hot the powder will form lumps). Then cook off the moisture, sprinkle with roasted coconut powder and you are done. 

Enjoy with some other fabulous Sri Lankan curries and of course some steamed rice.