Recipe: Slow Cooker Beef Rendang

I’ve gotten hugely into Thai food lately. I blame Surrey. There’s a hugely disproportionate number of Thai restaurants here, with Reigate alone having three or four at last count. Being one of my favorite cuisines anyway, I challenged myself with trying them all out. And got hooked. And started cooking it myself. Now my fridge is a fragrant combination of coriander (though any ideas on how to keep it fresh for longer than a day?!), ginger, lemongrass and chillies. I always feel quite healthy after eating Thai, it’s a lot lighter than Indian, and a lot easier to load with fresh veg. It’s quicker too, I find the flavours don’t need as long to develop. It’s easy to whip up a Thai Green Curry completely from scratch after work, and I’m working on an amazing soup recipe to share with you all.

This recipe is a bit different. It’s slightly more luxurious than your usual Thai, slightly heavier and richer, but still fragrant. And although it could be cooked quick, the beefy flavours definitely benefit from a day in the slow cooker. Not to mention that the cheap back of stewing steak turns melt-in-the-mouth tender. And my whole house smelt pretty damn amazing all day. There’s nothing better than coming in from the cold to the scent of something slow cooking, and this spicy twist was enough to have me wishing for dinner time at 2pm.

Ideally and authentically the pasta would have galangal in – but I can’t seem to find this anywhere. I’m not sure what it adds to the flavour, but if I find some I’ll let you know! My amounts below made two generous servings.

Ingredients (paste)

• 1″ piece of ginger, peeled
• 2 red chillies
• 3 garlic cloves (I love garlic)
• 1 stick of lemongrass
• 1/2 onion, or a couple of shallots
• 1 teaspoon tumeric
• stalks of 1/2 a bunch of coriander, and a few leaves too
• 1 tablespoon of oil

Rest of Ingredients

• 250g of stewing steak
• 1/2 tin coconut milk
• 100ml beef stock (I used 100ml water and half a stock cube)

Make the Paste

Prepare all of the paste ingredients, through into a food chopped, and blitz until it is as paste like as you can get it. My chopper isn’t brilliant, and hence this is all I managed. But it still works well as you are cooking it long enough for any chunks to soften down.

Begin to fry the paste on a medium heat until very fragrant.

Prep for the Slow Cooker

Once the paste is suitably fried, tip in your beef chunks. Continue to fry until sealed well. A good color on the beef at this stage will ensure a richer coloured curry at the end.

Add in the coconut milk and stock, then transfer to your slow cooker pan.

Finish

Cook on low for as long as possible, I think mine had six or seven hours. Stir every couple of hours, as I find coconut milk can stick slightly. Serve with rice and some green veg, garnishing with some coriander leaves. I also threw over a few peanuts for an added crunch.

What’s your favorite cuisine? Do you like Thai? Ever made a slow cooker curry?