Massaman Nuea (Beef Masaman Curry)

Ingredients:

For the Beef:
1kg beef, sliced into large chunks
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
500ml coconut milk
2 tbsp fish sauce

120ml massaman curry paste

To Finish:
2 tbso vegetable oil
500ml coconut cream
2 cardamom leaves
1 tbsp whole green cardamom pods
3cm piece of cinnamon
150g peanuts
5 shallots, peeled
4 tbsp palm sugar
1 tbsp tamarind paste mixed with 80ml warm water, set aside for 20 minutes then passed through a fine-meshed sieve
2 tbsp fish sauce

Method:

Place the beef in a bowl then pour over the ginger, coconut milk and fish sauce. Toss to combine then cover and set aside to infuse for 30 minutes. After this time, turn the entire mixture into a pan, bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the massaman curry paste according to the recipe.

To finish the curry, heat the oil in a wok and stir in the massaman curry paste. Cook for a few minutes, stirring vigourously, then add half the coconut cream and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the paste has spice paste has dissolved into the coconut cream. Now continue cooking until the oil separates out and forms a layer on top of the spice mix.

Now stir in the remaining coconut cream, bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes, or until the oil separates out once more. Stir in the cardamoms, cardamom leaves, shallots, peanuts, palm sugar, tamarind water and fish sauce. Now add the contents of the beef pot and stir thoroughly to combine.

Bring back to a simmer and continue cooking for a further 20 minutes, or until the beef is very tender. Adjust the seasonings to your desired levels of sweet, salty and sour (add more chillies for heat, but this is not supposed to be a particularly spicy curry).

Serve hot, accompanied by steamed Jasmine rice.