Pounded Stir-Fried Beef (Checha Mangsho) Recipe 

As I belong from a practicing Hindu family, I cannot have beef at home. y=just yesterday I was ordering burgers, and even though I prefer beef burgers, I had to order chicken burgers out of respect for my parents. So my opportunity to have beef is far and between. It’s mostly in restaurants, but that’s more beef as fast food, or steaks, or any other foreign cuisine. So Bengali style beef items, like beef roast, beef kabab, kala bhuna etc are only on my plate if I am at a friend’s house. But these occasional consumption of beef never let me in the craze over beef cuisine. Nor do I have family sentiment associated with beef items. 

 A few days ago a friend of mine was telling me about her grandmother’s special beef recipe. Beef and Porota was his favorite, rightfully so in my opinion. Every Qurbani Eid they would sacrifice the cow, my friend loved participating in it. For anyone unfamiliar, in Qurbani Eid Muslims sacrifice cows (the animal varies from country to country; goats, lambs, camels are also animals worthy of sacrificing) to honor the Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail, for the sake of Allah. 

Apologizes for getting side tracked, so my friend would do all the associated work of sacrificing the cow. Then he’d take the meat home, and his granny would start cooking the fresh beef. He would clean up and take a shower to find the beef waiting. He’d eat a bowl of that beef curry in one sitting, I have seen him eat so I believe him on this. But what he really waited for was made the day after Eid. On the second day, his granny would always make her special Checha Gorur Mangsho. And this Checha mangsho is what he still reminisces about. Now I have never had Checha mangsho, so I can only drool while hearing this story, not knowing how he truly felt. And even if I can get my hands on Checha beef, the dish would never match the sentiment he has towards his granny’s recipe. 

Coincidentally, Checha Mangsho was the dish Ms Shortcut Sokhina chose to make. I won’t probably go down on a trip to memory lane tasting Checha mangsho, but I am always up for trying out new beef items. And this dish is Sunita Apu’s grandmother’s recipe, so I am sure she has some memory of it. I’ll be sure to ask her later. But dear reader, please share your story about beef items your family made for you and you still fondly remember them. I would love to hear from you. 

I thought Checha mangsho would need some special cuts of beef. But as always, Moni Dadi kept the recipe simple. You can make Checha mangsho with any beef, but make sure the meat is boneless. Bones would make the process of smashing (checha) difficult, and small pieces of bones stuck with the meat would create an unpleasant experience. 

I have not explained the name of the dish to you yet, because it is pretty simple and I am trying my best to not make any jokes about it. Checha Mangsho means smashed meat. The process requires you to smash the boneless piece of meat with a hammer or some similar utensil. I am not quite sure how this affects the cooking process of the beef, any one familiar with it please leave an explanation. I’d be much obliged. 

Now one behind the scenes information I’d like to share is that Ms Shortcut Sokhina tried out the recipe herself first, and she did not smash the beef. And the beef curry turned out delicious as well. So if you can eat normal cuts of beef, and/or do not want to go through the process of smashing, just follow this recipe and you’ll have a delicious curry.