At that point, the satay became too strong a feature to not be mentioned in the title.
It is Thai(ish). "Ish'' being the operative word. It has coconut, and, um, coriander on top. That's pretty Thai. Right? I think the curry paste I used was Indian though. Goodness gracious.
Regardless, I thought it tasted great.
I started off following a recipe by Donal Skehan for red beef curry. Then I got a little carried away in my spice cupboard. If you use your imagination, it sort of resembles the original. Sort of.
I think this would be great if this was made in a slow cooker with slightly chunkier cubes of meat. Imagine leaving this on all day and to coming home to the smell of a delicious melt-in-the-mouth beef curry.
Unfortunately, our crockpot went to Auckland when Alix moved there earlier this year. However, two hours before writing this I acquired the perfect little slow cooker from a friend in my food science class! It suits our three-person flat perfectly.
In fact I couldn't wait to try it, so as soon as I got home I threw together a dahl mix that is cooking away as I write. If it turns out well I will share that next week with you.
Anyway, at the time of making this I did not have a slow cooker, so I used a deep frying pan. Which is far quicker, and since this is so delicious you definitely won't be able to wait that long! (Wow, I'm really sure of myself here aren't I?).
Serves four
500g rump steak (seriously we are students, we have young strong mouths, we can chew through some of the toughest chuck steak around so the quality and tenderness is not really an issue).
2 Tbsp red curry paste
1 tsp fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 tsp chilli paste
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
5 Tbsp sesame oil
2 red onions (or brown, doesn't really matter), sliced into half rings or thin wedges
2 Tbsp peanut butter
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 whole chilli, sliced (optional)
400g tin light coconut milk/cream
salt and pepper to taste
chopped salted peanuts, coriander leaves and some more sliced red chilli to serve if you wish
Coconut rice
2 cups rice
4 cups boiling water
1 cup coconut milk
1 Tbsp desiccated coconut
1 tsp sesame oil
d tsp salt
2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Slice the beef into thin strips. Throw it into a bowl where to it you mix in half of the following: curry paste, garlic, ginger and sesame oil. Mix until coated. Then in a hot deep frying pan, brown the meat in small batches.
Mix the rest of the curry paste, ginger and garlic and sesame oil as well as the tamarind, turmeric, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, chilli paste, peanut butter, honey and soy sauce together in a mug. Wow, what a list.
Once all the beef strips have been cooked and put to one side, saute the onions. Once the onions are soft and translucent, add the paste you mixed up in the mug into the pan. Stir and mix until the spices are nicely toasted and fragrant.
Return the beef to the pan and stir to coat with the paste.
Add in the coconut milk and half a can of water. Stir and leave to simmer for half an hour. In that time prepare the rice.
In a microwave rice maker or just a large heat proof bowl, add in the rice, water, coconut milk, sesame oil and desiccated coconut. Microwave on high for around 12 minutes (it depends on your microwave - ours takes 14 minutes).
Keep checking because sometimes you can over cook the rice and it dries into a solid rice brick.
Once it is out of the microwave, leave it to sit with a lid covering it for a few minutes. During this time you can toast the sesame seeds.
In a clean and dry frying pan, toast the seeds over a medium heat until some of them turn a very light brown colour. Remove from the heat.
Stir into the rice and fluff the rice with a fork.
Serve the curry with the rice as well as garnishing it will coriander leaves, chopped peanuts and some fresh chilli slices for the brave.
Enjoy!
