It was a lazy Sunday kinda day today, the chap and I went for a walk, got rained on and then decided the best course of action was not to bother leaving the house again. I like to break out the slow cooker on days like this, when it’s hot, so you don’t want to have the oven on all day but you still want something satisfying. If you read my previous blog you’ll see that I had a beef massaman earmarked for Monday dining but hey ho I’m adaptable like that so out the slow cooker came.

You will need:

• 500g diced beef
• 2 tbsp flour,salt and pepper
• 1 large onion
• 2 inches ginger, grated
• Massaman curry paste
• Coconut milk (I used reduced fat)
• 1tbsp fish sauce
• Lime
• 1 – 2 tbsp brown sugar
• Small waxy potatoes, quartered

 

Dredge the beef with the season flour, I do this in the pack it comes in because I don’t want any more washing up 

If your slow cooker pot is hob safe, heat up some coconut oil/vegetable oil (just enough so the beef won’t catch) in it on high- if not you will have to break out a pan and then transfer everything to the slow cooker later

Brown the meat well and then remove and set aside

Lower the heat and add the onion and ginger, scrape up all the beefy yum from the bottom of the pan and fry them for a minute or 2.

Add 3 decent tbsp of the paste, in this case it was about half the jar and fry for a couple of mins until fragrant

Add the coconut milk and then fill the coconut can halfway up with water and add this too

 

At this point I remember I had some dried Kaffir lime leaves and added them too, they are totally optional but add an extra limey sourness

Add the fish sauce and sugar and jest and juice of half the lime

Add back in the beef and the potatoes and bring to a boil

Once boiled put the whole assembly in the slow cooker, 6 – 8 hours on low, the beef will be nicely tender and should fall apart when you check it.

At this point have a look and see how you feel about the thickness and seasoning, I added more sugar and it was a bit watery because of the light coconut milk so I mixed 2 scant tablespoons of cornflower with enough water to make a slurry and added it in and popped it back on for about 20 mins to thicken.

Add the juice of the other half of the lime and serve with jasmine rice and this tasty salad:

You will need

• 1 carrot
• 1/3 cucumber
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/4 red onion
• some chives
• 1 green chilli – not pictured because I’m a sap sometimes

These are weird amounts because these are the half eaten things I have in my fridge

and for the dressing:

 

• 1 tbsp kecap manis – if you don’t have this just double the next 2 ingredients
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• juice of 1-2 limes, depending on how juicy they are

Combine all the dressing ingredients and set aside while you prepare the vegetables

Shave the carrot and cucumber into strips using a vegetable peeler

Slice all the other ingredients into really fine strips and combine in a bowl

Toss with the dressing and serve with your delicious curry with some salted peanuts scattered over. I recommend enjoying all of this with a cold beerI did!