Beef Rendang

I've been wanting to cook this dish for many years now, but just never got round to it. +Nick had also been requesting this many times, and I thought recently that it would be a perfect dish for winter. It's still a bit of challenge finding some Asian vegetables, herbs and spices here in Daylesford, but I'm finding out more from the locals!

Serves: 4-6
Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking: about 2 hours

1 tbsp neutral-flavoured oil
1 kg chuck steak, beef short rib or other braising steak, cut into 3cm cubes
3 stalks lemon grass, white part only, bruised with a pestle
1 turmeric leaf, shredded (or 3 kaffir lime leaves, shredded)
2 tsp sugar
400ml coconut cream
100g grated fresh coconut (or 130g desiccated coconut)

Base paste
8 eschalots
6 red-birds-eye chillies
6 garlic cloves
3cm piece each of galangal, ginger and turmeric, all peeled and thickly sliced
2 tsp sea salt flakes

To make the base paste, put all the ingredients in a food processor or mortar and grind to a fairly smooth paste.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the paste, stirring often, over medium heat for about 5 minutes until darkened and fragrant.

Add the beef, lemongrass, turmeric leaf and sugar and toss to coat in the paste. Add the coconut cream and 250ml water and bring to a low simmer. Cover and cook for 30 minutes, then uncover and cook for 1 hour. In this time the coconut cream should split to release its oil while the liquid boils away. The cooking process will turn from simmering to frying to give a flavoursome dry dish. If the liquid is evaporating too quickly, cover the pot for a while or add a little more water.

Meanwhile, dry-fry the coconut in a frying pan until golden brown. Transfer to a mortar and grind to a paste. The coconut will release its oil during grinding and the paste will become sticky.

When the beef has been cooking for 1 1/2 hours and most of the liquid has evaporated, add the coconut paste and cook, stirring often, over low heat for 30 minutes until the liquid has evaporated and the meat is frying in the separated coconut oil. Adjust the seasoning and serve.

Chinese Chicken Curry

This is the one stir-fry recipe that I swear by, and I've done it so many times over the years, I've been able to vary it on occasions where food in the fridge needs to be cleared out, substituting ingredients where needed.

If this is your first time trying out a stir-fry, don't be fazed! The list of ingredients below gives you an idea of the essentials that are useful to have at home for a quick meal.

A few rules for a good stir-fry: always heat up the wok until it is very hot. By very hot, I mean seeing light smoke coming out of the wok. Same applies for the oil. Only pour in the oil when the wok is very hot, swirling the oil on the bottom of the wok, and only throw in the first lot of ingredients when you see the oil smoking.

Be prepared with everything before you heat up your wok. You only have 6 minutes to stir-fry this once the oil is hot. For this, I have divided the ingredients below into sections, so you can see you will only have three lots to put together at prep: marinated chicken, chopped capsicum and garlic in a bowl, and the stock/paste mixture combined in a measuring cup. I have only used water for velveting the chicken for this recipe.

Last but not least, have the rice washed and cooking in the rice cooker after marinating the chicken, because you want everything ready at the same time!

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes, plus 20 minutes' chilling
Cooking time: 10 minutes

450g (1 lb) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2.5-cm (1-in) chunks
1 egg white
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 teaspoons cornflour

300 ml (10 fl oz) groundnut oil or water
1 tablespoon groundnut oil

225 g (8 oz) red or green peppers., cut into 2.5-cm (1-in) pieces
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped garlic

150 ml (5 fl oz) Classic Chinese chicken stock or good-quality bought stock
1 1/2 tablespoons Madras curry paste or powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornflour, blended with 1 tablespoon water

Fresh coriander leaves to garnish (optional)

Put the chicken pieces in a bowl with the egg white, salt, sesame oil and 2 teaspoons of the cornflour and mix well. Put the mixture into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.

IF YOU ARE USING OIL for velveting the chicken, heat a wok until very hot and then add the oil. When it is very hot, remove the wok from the heat and immediately add the chicken, stirring vigorously to prevent it sticking. After about 2 minutes, when the chicken turns white, quickly drain it and all of the oil in a stainless steel colander set over a bowl. Discard the oil. IF YOU ARE USING WATER, do exactly the same but bring the water to the oil in a saucepan before adding the chicken. It will take about 4 minutes to turn white in the water.

If you have used the wok, wipe it clean. Heat it until it is very hot, then add the tablespoon of groundnut oil. When it is very hot, add the peppers and garlic and stir-fry for 2 minutes.

Add the stock, curry paste or powder, sugar, rice wine or sherry, soy sauce and cornflour mixture. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the drained chicken to the wok and stir-fry for another 2 minutes, coating the chicken thoroughly with the sauce. Serve at once.