Prep: 15 minutes
Cooking: 60-70 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients

2 pieces of cinnamon stick, shredded
10 cardamom seeds
5 cloves
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons (50g) massaman curry spice paste
800g beef flank or rump steak, cut into 3-5cm cubes
410ml (1 ¾ cups) coconut milk
250ml (1 cup) beef stock
2-3 medium-sized potatoes cut into 2.5cm cubes
2cm piece of ginger, shredded
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons palm sugar
110g roasted, salted peanuts, without skin
3 tablespoons tamarind paste

Step 1

Cut a piece of Tamarind off the block. Soak for 10 minutes and then press through a sieve, discarding the pulp and retaining the liquid. Dry-fry the cinnamon, cardamom and cloves in a saucepan or wok over a low heat for 2-3 minutes or until the spices are fragrant. Remove the spices from the pan.

Step 2

Heat the oil in the same saucepan and stir-fry the massaman paste for 2-3 minutes or until fragrant.
Add the beef and stir-fry for 5 minutes over a fairly high heat. Lower the heat a little and add the coconut milk, beef stock, potatoes, ginger, fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind liquid, the dried-fried spices and ¾ of the roasted peanuts.

Step 3

Reduce the heat to low and gently simmer for 50-60 minutes until the meat is tender and the potatoes are just cooked.
Spoon into a serving bowl and garnish the meal with the remaining peanuts.

For a hot massaman curry, add dried chillies.

Serve with crisp naan bread and a vegetable side dish.