Malaysian Beef Rendang

Apparently  CNN poll said that it thought that Malaysian Beef Rendang was the most delicious food in the world.
I'd eaten it in a Malay restaurant in China Town in London and enjoyed it there but had never tried to make it.
I spent some time browsing the internet for recipes, tending to focus on Indonesian and Malay sites to keep things as authentic as possible.
What I did then was to amalgamate a couple and here is the recipe:-

Ingredients

1.25 kg Stewing beef or a roasting joint cut into 3-4 cm pieces ( I used a topside joint)

Rempah or Curry paste

2 medium brown onions, peeled, roughly chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly sliced

2 1/2 Tbs ground coriander

1 1/2 Tbs ground fennel

1 1/2 Tbs ground cumin

1 tsp ground black pepper

3-5 red chillies - depending on how hot you like it

4 stalks lemongrass, white part only, dry outer layers removed, finely sliced

3 cm galangal (fattest part), peeled and finely sliced (if you can get it)

3 cm fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced

1 Tbs tamarind paste – easily found in a jar at supermarkets or Asian grocers

2 Tbs brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup water

Other

1 cinnamon stick

4 cloves

6 cardamom pods

800 ml coconut milk

150g kerisik (150g desiccated coconut required - see method)

Extra brown sugar and salt to balance at the end

Method

Combine all rempah ingredients in a blender and blitz into a smooth paste. Pour into a large mixing bowl together with beef and mix thoroughly. Cover, refrigerate and leave to marinate overnight or for 2 hours at minimum. I poured it all into a zip-lock bag with the beef - sealed it and left it over night in the fridge.

To cook, transfer meat into a large non-stick saucepan. Add remaining ingredients except kerisik and cook uncovered on a low to medium heat until half the liquid has evaporated. Stir occasionally to check the mixture is not catching on the bottom. Again it depends how you feel about it but I did this all in a slow cooker on low for about 6-7 hours, then emptied it out in to a hot wok to reduce the sauce. I also added a sliced red pepper at this stage to add a bit of colour.

To make kerisik, simply dry toast 150g desiccated coconut in a medium frypan, tossing regularly until it develops a deep golden brown. Transfer to a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder to grind into a grainy paste.

Add kerisik and cook until the rendang develops into a dark brown with most of the liquid evaporated and beef tender. This should take 1 - 1 1/2 hours (when not in a slow cooker).

Check seasoning, add salt/sugar if necessary 

Serve immediately with steamed jasmine rice and fresh cucumberand another drizzle of coconut milk.

 

Indian Dinner Party

A couple of weekends ago we had friends over and I did my take on an Indian banquet.

I tried to make it an interesting experience in my own words the look I went for was 'oriental opulence'.
 

I chose a selection of coordinating crockery and cutlery. The plates were a selection of white porcelain mixed with some Imari China (Royal Crown Derby of course!) and a few serving dishes from Grotaglie the local pottery town near our house in Puglia, Italy.

These were inter dispersed with a few vases of spring flowers to add height as well as some plates on stands again offering a little height.

We had three families (including ours) for lunch so were short of some places, so we pushed two tables together, one for the adults, one for the children, but kept the theme flowing with matching table clothes and crockery.

To make things a little easier we had drinks and a little appetiser in the lounge and then went through to the dining room to sit down and eat the starter, main course and sweets.

Again I didn't want to be up and down all the time so to stick with the 'opulent banquet' theme I presented all of the starters and main courses in one go and allowed people to pick 'n' mix as they chose.

To start we had Prosecco with wild hibiscus flowers in syrup. The flowers were placed in the sparkling wine for a visual treat and it also gave somewhere for the bubbles to begin their journey up into the open from.

With this I served 'pani puri' (Gol Gappa in Punjabi) which are an Indian street food snack. The pani means water which is a flavoured liquor poured into the pani - small puffed up balls of fried semolina paste. With these was a sambal of fresh herbs and vegetables, a simple chick pea curry and a tangy mint and tamarind chutney.

A small drizzle or spoon of each of the above are dropped into the open and waiting pani, then the whole thing can go into your mouth in one go creating a taste explosion.

 

Pan Fried pork chops with apple and cider sauce

 

This is a classic recipe that most people should enjoy, it gets the most out of good pork pairing it with its best friend the apple, whilst not being that sticky sweet apple sauce out of a jar,

For this recipe I went to our local butcher (still a five minute car journey away) and chose two good sized outdoor reared chops from a rare breed pig with a good dry skin on the edge.
The sauce was a 'reduction'  (a 'cheffy' term meaning to boil the sauce away to improve flavour and intensity, as well as its consistency.) of cream and cider (as you can see I used a Swedish one - it was non-alcoholic - left over from when my brother and his family had been around).

To make the dish I first prepped the veg in this case I trimmed and par-boiled some asparagus spears and three large white baking style potatoes to make mash. The asparagus I dropped in boiling water for about five minutes and then fished it out and refreshed it (another cheffy term simply meaning I put it into iced water to stop the cooking and keep the colour.

 

The potatoes I peeled and diced and boiled in plenty of salted water. After about fifteen minutes the potatoes were tender and cooked through, I drained them and put the pan back on the stove with the drained potatoes for about a minute to dry them out a bit (there are few things worse than wet mash!).

After this I added double cream, milk and butter and mashed them down with a hand potato masher (unless your making it for hundreds it's still the best way!) After creating a well seasoned and creamy mash I added two teaspoons of whole grain mustard and mixed that through.

During this time I'd put on a frying pan to warm through to cook the pork chops, I also got four apples and just cut them through the centre.

Pan hot I added a little oil and then the seasoned chops after about four minutes I turned them and added the apples cut side down. The whole pan I then put into a pre-heated oven (around 200*C) - don't do this if you have pans with plastic handles!! Also remember when you take it out the metal handle will be 'Very Hot!' I did forget this with a chatty nine year old and ended up with a good burn on my palm! :-(

If you don't put your pan in the oven it may be a better idea to cut the apple up a bit smaller and then give the chops another five or so minutes on the top of the stove.

After about ten to fifteen minutes of cooking - depending in how well done you like your meat - also allow a bit of extra time if you have a very thick chop!

Take the meat out of the pan with the apple and place it on a plate to rest. Meanwhile add half a finely chopped onion to the (hot!) pan (add a little butter too if you feel it's needed) allow this to sweat out a little without too much colour. After a few minutes when the onion is softened add about a third of a bottle of cider - allow this to reduce with the onion,butter and meat and apple juices. When it looks as though the liquid is just covering the onions add a good splash of double cream and allow to reduce again by around one half, check the seasoning and flavour - turn off the heat.

Now you can start to 'plate-up' - a portion of vegetables leaning against the mustard mash, two apple halves the pork and then a covering of the sauce - you may if you wish strain the sauce before this point to remove the onions (or leave them in?!) 

Now all you have to do is sit down and enjoy it!