Left Overs 4 - Spicy Rice with Left Over Rick Stein's Beef Mussaman

Spicy Rice, left over mussaman and an optional fried egg!

As we were going out to order our new kitchen, I knew a speedy meal would be in order when we got back, so I took some left over Mussaman curry from the freezer in the morning and set it to defrost.

Rice

My never fail rice works as follows - measure the quantity of basmati rice into a medium saucepan, add the correct quantity of boiling water (see below), season, put over a medium heat and bring back to the boil, stir, cover with a tight fitting lid - preferably a glass one. You mustn't take the lid off during cooking. Place a folded damp dishcloth on a heatproof board. When all the water appears to have been absorbed (about 10 mins) place the pan on the damp discloth, if it makes a sighing noise, all the water has been absorbed, if not return to the heat for a few minutes and repeat until you get the "sigh", it should be a strong sigh, not a light sounding one and definitely not a loud one. Remove the lid, fluff the rice with a fork, cover with a clean, dry tea towel and replace the lid. Leave to stand until ready, but not more than 15-20 minutes or you would need to chill it.

Quantities - 9oz rice to 23 fl oz boiling water serves 3-4, 6 oz rice to 15 fl oz boiling water serves 2-3. You can do 3oz rice but you need quite a small pan for it to work

Spicing it up

Heat some vegetable oil in a pan, I then added some sliced onion, a couple of sliced cloves of  garlic, a little red pepper, some sliced mushrooms,chopped red and green chilis, chopped chard and spinach,some cooked broccoli in that order, leaving a couple of minutes in between each new ingredient. In a separate dry pan I toasted some almonds and cashews and added them to the pan. Next I sprinkled over some turmeric, about half a teaspoon and a big heaped teaspoon of garam masala and then added the rice  and fried until the ingredients were all mixed and the spices coated the rice making it all a rich yellow colour. You can really add in the spices that you like, I tried not to make mine too flavoured as I knew the curry was hot and strong or the vegetables that you like, I just used left over bits and bobs, some raisins would be good in there too.

I had left over Mussaman, you can eat the rice on it's own or with any left over curry of your choice.

Here is the recipe for the Mussaman, it's adapted  from Rick Steins Far Eastern Odyssey. 

1.5kg stewing beef, cut into large chunks

600ml coconut milk, I used Blue Dragon light

6 black cardamom pods

10cm cinnamon stick

300g potatoes

8 shallots

1 quantity Thai mussaman curry paste

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp tamarind paste

1 tbsp palm sugar

Water to get a good consistency of sauce

Handful of cashew nuts, lightly toasted

Thai mussaman curry paste

10 dried red Kashmiri chillies, broken up

2 tbsp whole coriander seeds

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tsp cardamom seeds (gently crush 20 green pods in a pestle and mortar)

16 cloves

5cm piece cinnamon stick

2 large pieces blade mace - I didn't have this and grated in some nutmeg instead

3 tbsp vegetable oil

200g shallots

25g garlic chopped

1 tsp shrimp paste

25g peeled fresh ginger chopped

2 fat lemongrass stalks, stripped and core chopped

8 tbsp coconut milk

Any of the more unusual ingredients I got from the Asian Cookshop on-line, along with my lovely Kerahi for cooking the curry in.

First make the paste. Heat a  heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat. Add the chillies, toast for a minute or two, then tip into a spice grinder. Return the pan to the heat and add the coriander, cumin and cardamom seeds, cloves, cinnamon and blade mace (or nutmeg), shake them around until they darken slightly and their smell starts to radiate, don't let them burn or they will be bitter. Add to the spice grinder and whizz everything to a fine powder, depending on your grinder you may need to do this in 2 batches. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and garlic and fry gently, stirring occasionally, until browned. Add the shrimp paste and ground spices and fry for another couple of minutes. Tip the mixture into a mini food processor, add the remaining ingredients and blend until you have a smooth paste.

Then you can make the curry

Put the beef into a heavy-based pan with 350ml of the coconut milk and an equal amount of water (just fill the can and use that). Pop in the black cardamom pods, cinnamon stick and a teaspoon of salt. Slowly bring to a  simmer, part-cover leaving a small gap for steam to escape and leave to cook for about 2 hours, stir occasionally, until the beef is just about tender. While the meat is cooking, peel the potatoes and cut into 2.5 x 2.5 x 1 cm pieces. Peel the shallots and halve them. Uncover the curry, remove the black cardamoms and cinnamon. Stir in the rest of the coconut milk, the potatoes, shallots, curry paste, fish sauce, tamarind paste, sugar and about 150ml boiling water and simmer, uncovered, for about another 30 minutes, until the potatoes, shallots and beef are tender. Stir in the cashews and serve with the rice.

If you are feeling really hungry and a little decadent you can top it all with a fried egg, but it's not compulsory!

The curry is aromatic with spices and fiery hot, probably not one for a curry novice, a little yoghurt or raita would calm it down. I've noticed that once you start grinding Kashmiri Chillies things do start to heat up! For me, I thought the flavour of the fish sauce was a little overbearing, the shrimp paste may have contributed too, it's not something I've experienced when eating Mussaman out and when I make it again I will halve the quantities of both fishy ingredients. I think the smell was more over powering than the taste though to be honest, but smell is an important part of enjoying a meal. Don't get me wrong I did really like it, just a little less fish sauce smell could have made it perfect!