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Meatball Madras Curry
Meatball Madras Curry is a traditional South African recipe for a traditoinal curry of minced (ground) meat meatballs in a spicy madras-style curry base with spinach leaves. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic South African version of: Meatball Madras Curry.
prep time
10 minutes
cook time
20 minutes
Total Time:
30 minutes
Serves:
12
Rating: 
Tags : CurrySpice RecipesVenison RecipesSouth-africa Recipes
Durban is, undoubtedly, the home of South African curries (at least for spicy curries; and I'm not forgetting Cape Town). Everywhere there are masalas and curry powders. Madras is more the commercial curry powder of South Africa, where you will get mild, medium and spicy. I typically buy medium for my own use --- my wife likes the turmeric in it. Then I add fresh chillies for a hotter and fruitier flavour. This recipe I first made to use-up commercial venison meatballs. Venison is generally South Africa’s ‘cheap’ meat --- and is readily available. Eventually I deconstructed the ingredients so that I could prepare the recipe from scratch. Though venison (springbok, kudu, blaesbok) is the original meat you could substitute goat, mutton, lamb, true venison or even beef.
Ingredients:
For the Curry:
100ml (1/2 cup) vegetable oil
2 onions, coarsely chopped
2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, peeled and grated
6 garlic cloves, crushed
2 small bell peppers, chopped
1 red chilli (habanero), chopped
1 tbsp medium Madras curry powder
1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
1 tsp smoked chilli powder
3 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp sugar
400g (14 oz) tin chopped tomatoes
80g (3 oz) baby spinach leaves, washed
Handful of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped
For the Meatballs:
500g (1 lb) ground (minced) venison
1 tbsp ground cumin seeds
1 tbsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp chilli flakes (I used chipotle for the smokiness)
Handful of coriander stalks, very finely chopped
Method:
Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and fry, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent (about 6 minutes.
Add the garlic, ginger, bell peppers, chilli and fenugreek leaves. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes, or until the onions have started to colour and become golden.
In the meantime, combine all the ingredients for the meatballs in a large mixing bowl and mix with your hands until well combined. Cover the bowl and set aside.
For the curry sauce, add the curry powder, garam masala, chilli powder and ground turmeric to a pan. Stir to combine then add the salt, sugar, chopped tomatoes and 400ml (1 2/3 cups) boiling water. Stir again until well combined then bring the mixture to a boil, reduce to a brisk simmer and keep cooking as you shape the meatballs.
Take a heaped tsp of the meatball mixture and roll between your palms until they form a ball. Set aside as you shape the remaining mixture. Once all the meatballs are shaped drop in the curry sauce. Cook for 1 minute then stir into the sauce.
Leave to simmer for 10 minutes then stir through the spinach leaves and cook for 5 minutes more. Take the curry off the heat and divide between warmed serving plates. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and accompany with boiled basmati rice.
