This is one of those ‘start this recipe the day before’ situations – but it is so worth it. I often serve this simply with rice, flatbreads, and just-cooked fresh green beans.
Serves 6
Spice paste
3 onions, roughly chopped
5 cloves garlic
1 large thumb fresh ginger, peeled
5 red chillies, roughly chopped
2 stalks of lemongrass, outer leaves removed and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1.8 kilograms beef short ribs
2 teaspoons sea salt
600ml coconut milk
2 tablespoons tamarind paste
2 teaspoons brown sugar
3 whole kaffir lime leaves
1⅓ cup good-quality crunchy peanut or cashew butter
To serve
½ cup coriander leaves to garnish
finely chopped red and green chilli to garnish
rice and flatbreads (recipe below) to serve
Spice paste: Preheat the oven to 160ºC. Put the spice paste ingredients, except the oil, in a food processor and whizz to form a smoothish paste. Heat the oil in large heavy-bottomed pot and add the spice paste. Cook over a gentle heat for 10 minutes. Transfer the spice paste to an oven dish that will fit the shortribs snugly.
Add the shortribs to the paste, bone side up. Add the salt and three-quarters of the coconut milk, cover with tinfoil and cook for 2½ hours, stirring occasionally. Remove the tinfoil and cook a further 2 hours. At this point leave the ribs to cool and chill in the fridge 6 hours or overnight.
Once chilled, remove the solid fat layer and preheat the oven to 170ºC. Add the remaining coconut milk, tamarind paste, brown sugar, kaffir lime leaves and peanut or cashew butter. Cook a further hour.
Garnish with chillies to serve.
Quick Yoghurt Naan (V)
This is my cheat’s version of naan, no yeast required!
Makes 6-8
2¼ cups self-raising flour, plus extra to dust the bench
1 teaspoon baking powder
1½ teaspoons sea salt, plus extra to sprinkle
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1¼ cups Greek natural yoghurt
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons melted butter
Sift the flour and baking powder into a stand mixer and add the salt and cumin seeds. Mix briefly to combine, then add the yoghurt, milk, oil and garlic.
Mix for 2-3 minutes until smooth – this can also be done by hand by kneading for 5 minutes.
Tip the dough out onto a well-floured bench and knead a little more so that the dough is soft but not too sticky. Roll into a sausage about 30cm long and cut into 6-8 pieces (6 for medium, 8 for small naan). Roll each dough piece into a smooth ball, cover with a tea towel and leave to sit for 15 minutes.
Take each ball and either gently roll with a rolling pin or flatten with the heel of your palm into a rough oval about 1cm thick. Heat a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and dry-fry the naan, in batches of 2 at a time, for 1 minute each side or until puffed, golden and cooked through. As they come out of the pan, brush with a little melted butter and sprinkle with extra sea salt.
