Holy shit, this stuff was great. It’s what known as a dry curry, which means it’s more like meat with a gravy, as opposed to a normal curry, which is more like a stew or soup.
Couple notes:
- The recipe calls for lemongrass. If you buy lemongrass at the grocery, most of it is junk. What you want to do is cut off and discard the root and most of the stalk. You will only keep maybe the bottom 25% of the lemongrass, the lighter bits. Once you have that, slit the skin with a knife and peel off what’s outside, and throw that away as well. What you’re left with? That’s the good bit. That’s the only bit you want to use
- Officially, you should use dried, unsweetened coconut for the recipe. I used (undried) sliced coconut, and the flavor was good, but the gravy was a little chunky. If you use dried coconut it would be smoother, but DO NOT use the sweetened coconut you use for baking. It will come out far too sweet.
Ingredients
For the spice paste:
1 cup coconut (see note above)
1 small onion, chopped
8-10 cloves garlic
2 inches ginger, chopped
1 tablespoon turmeric
3 lemongrass stalks (see above)
5 thai green chilis (optional)(use whatever hot peppers you prefer. You can taste it as you go to see if it’s hot enough. Just be aware that some of the heat will cook out over time)
salt to taste.
For cooking:
2-3 pounds lean stew beef, chopped in to pieces
10 cloves, ground
2 cinnamon sticks
3-5 star anise
1-2 cans coconut milk
1 tablespoon sugar (or more if you want, or if you have to cut some acidity)
1 tablespoon tamarind puree (totally optional, I was just excited I found it in the store)
2 tablespoons oil
water to cover
salt to taste
5 lime leaves, finely chopped
Directions
See all that stuff for the spice paste? Chuck it in a food processor and blend the shit out of it until it’s smooth. Taste it and add salt if needed.
Add the spice paste to the beef and let it sit while you prep the rest of the ingredients.
Add the spice paste to a pot, and add everything under the heading “For cooking” except the lime leaves. Only add the bare minimum of water to the pot, just enough to barely cover the meat. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer on low, covered, for 1-2 hours. Remove the cover and turn up the heat to medium low.
Let this boil like that for another hour. Check it periodically to make sure it isn’t burning (it shouldn’t be, but occasionally some of the beef will stick to the bottom of the pot). Add the lime leaves and turn the heat up to medium.
NOW you need to watch it. What you are going to do here is boil off all the water to create a thick gravy, and eventually the beef will fry in the fat. As you work through this step, the broth will start to darken. It will end up almost a chocolate brown as it cooks down and fries. It could take up to an hour. At some point in this hour, go ahead and fish out the cinnamon sticks and star anise.
As it cooks down, it may start to burn a bit. If it does, turn down the heat. Keep cooking until there’s very little liquid left, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
Serve with coconut rice or regular rice or just shove it in your face.
eatbensmeat 