Malaysian feast time!

Friends came to dinner on Saturday night and I had an excess of veggies in the crisper so I made a Malaysian feast in their honour. Perhaps a bit too much belachan in the pumpkin and orange curry so I won’t blog that recipe, but the rest was a hit. Especially the roti bread (bought from Woolies).

Recipe: Slow-cooker beef and coconut curry

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

1.5kg diced slow-cooker beef (large dice)

vegetable oil

1 red onion, peeled and chopped

thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and chopped

5 cloves garlic, peeled

8 kaffir lime leaves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1/2 cup beef stock

150ml coconut cream

2 tablespoons lime juice

METHOD: Dry fry the coconut until lightly golden. Remove from pan and place in slow-cooker. Heat oil in a large, heavy-based pan. Brown beef. Blend the onion and garlic in a food processor with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Remove the beef from the pan and place in slow-cooker. Add a little more oil to the pan and fry the onion mix until it starts to colour. Add it to the slow-cooker. Add kaffir lime leaves, cinnamon, coriander and beef stock to the slow-cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours. Stir in coconut cream and lime juice. Continue to simmer for 15 minutes. Serve with rice and roti bread.

Recipe: spinach in oyster sauce

2 bunches of english spinach

vegetable oil

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 green onions, chopped

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1/4 cup beef stock

METHOD: Steam english spinach until wilted. Refresh under cold water.  Heat oil in a heavy-based pan and saute garlic and shallots until softened. Add oyster sauce and beef stock and bring to boil. Toss through spinach until warmed through. Serve.

RECIPE: Bean and mushroom stir-fry

vegetable oil

1 large red onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

500g beans, chopped

150g sliced mushrooms

3 spring onions, chopped

handful coriander leaves, chopped

1 teaspoon sambal oelek

4 eggs + 1 teaspoon sambal oelek (optional)

METHOD: Heat oil in a heavy-based pan. Saute onion and garlic until soft. Add the beans, mushrooms and spring onions and toss lightly for 2 minutes. Toss through coriander and sambal oelek and serve. The dish is also delicious served with 4 eggs scrambled with 1 teaspoon of sambal oelek.