INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE PASTE:
1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
8 whole garlic cloves, peeled
4 cm piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
4 sticks lemongrass, outer leaves removed, roughly chopped
3 birds eye chillies, seeds removed
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
FOR THE CURRY:
3 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cinnamon sticks
3 star anise
6 green cardamom pods, crushed
750 g skirt steak or any other braising style beef cut into 5 cm chunks
400 ml coconut milk
100 ml water
4 tbsp. brown sauce (we used HP)
2 tbsp. soy sauce
6 kaffir lime leaves
1 sugar
75 g toasted desiccated coconut
Salt and sugar, to taste
Sticky rice and pak choi, to serve
DIRECTIONS:
- For the paste, add all ingredients into a food processor. Blitz until you form a smooth purée. Set aside.
- Heat remaining 3tbsp oil in a heavy-bottomed casserole dish over medium-heat. Add the spice paste, cinnamon, star anise and cardamom. Stir fry for 5 minutes until the aromats are released, and you get a nice fragrance. Add the beef and brown for approx. 3 minutes, turning to evenly coat in the spice mix.
- Add the coconut milk, water, brown sauce, soy sauce and kaffir lime leaves, Bring to the boil, then lower heat reduce to a low simmer.
- Add the 1tsp sugar and toasted coconut. Cook for 2 to 2.5 hours until the meat is tender and nearly all the sauce has dried up and clung to the meat. Stir occasionally to stop the meat and coconut sticking to the pan, you may need to top up with water as you go along.
- Add salt and sugar to taste and serve with sticky rice and pak choi.