Leylie’s Massaman Curry

Serves 4

You will need:

700g topside of beef, diced 2 tablespoons sunflower oil 3 tablespoons Massaman curry paste 10 green cardamom seeds 2 cinnamon sticks 3 star anise 2 large brown onions, diced 2 x 165ml tins coconut milk 2½ tablespoons fish sauce 1 cup water 5 new potatoes, peeled and halved 4 tablespoons unsalted roasted peanuts 2 tablespoons palm sugar

tablespoon tamarind paste Small bunch of fresh coriander, chopped Crispy shallots, lime wedges and crushed salted peanuts, to serve 1 Marinate the diced beef in 1 tablespoon of oil and the Massaman curry paste. Stir well and set aside. 2 In a large pot, heat the remaining tablespoon of sunflower oil over a medium heat. Stir-fry the cardamom seeds, the cinnamon sticks and the star anise for one minute, until they are fragrant. Add the diced onions and saute them until they are golden brown. 3 Add the diced beef you set aside earlier, along with all the marinade, and brown for 1-2 minutes. Stir to mix well with the spices. 4 Add 1 tin of the coconut milk, 2 tablespoons of the fish sauce and ½ to 1 cup of the water, until the beef is just covered. Stir well, and bring to the boil. Once it is boiling, turn heat down very low and cover. Gently simmer for 1 hour, stirring regularly. 5 Add the remaining tin of coconut milk, the halved new potatoes, and the unsalted roasted peanuts, and stir well. Taste, and add a little more of the fish sauce if necessary. 6 Turn the heat up to mediumlow and cover. Cook for another 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Once the potatoes are cooked, remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the palm sugar, the tamarind paste and the chopped fresh coriander. Serve with the crispy shallots, the lime wedges and scatter the crushed salted peanuts over the top. Don’t eat the whole spices.