Curry

Malaysian Beef Rendang Curry

Name: Malaysian Beef Rendang Curry
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 min
Total time: 1 min
Yield: 6 people
Ingredients: 1kg boneless short ribs; Olive oil; 1 400ml tinned coconut milk; Juice of 1 lime; 1 cinnamon stick; 5 kaffir lime leaves; 1 tsp palm sugar; 3 Tbsp desiccated coconut, toasted for garnish; Fresh coriander, for garnish; Jasmine or basmati rice, for serving; Rendang paste; 6 dried red chillies, deseeded; 2 whole cloves; 5 cardamom pods, pods split open, seeds only; 1 tsp turmeric powder; 1 red onion, roughly chopped; 3 garlic cloves, peeled; 1 Tbsp fresh ginger; 2 fresh red chillies, deseeded

Substitute boneless short ribs with beef chuck or goulash.

Method

To make the curry paste, heat a small frying pan and dry roast the dried chillies, cloves, cardamom seeds and turmeric for a minute or two to release the flavours.
Tip the spices into a pestle and mortar and grind everything to a powder.
Put the roughly chopped onions, garlic cloves, ginger and fresh chillies into a food processor/blender and blend until finely diced. This step can also be done by hand.
Add the onion mixture to the pestle and mortar and combine with the spices to make a smooth curry paste.
Slice the beef short ribs into 3cm cubes.
Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a large saucepan over a high heat and evenly brown the beef.
Stir in the rendang curry paste coating the beef in the spices and sauté for a few minutes stirring continuously so the mixture doesn’t catch on the bottom of the saucepan.
Pour the coconut milk into the saucepan and stir in the lime juice, kaffir lime leaves, cinnamon stick and palm sugar. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Bring to the boil, cover and simmer on low for 1 ½ hours or until the meat is really tender and the sauce has thickened.
Garnish this dish with toasted coconut and fresh coriander leaves and serve with jasmine or basmati rice.