Beef Penang

Disclaimer: I am not Malaysian and I don’t really know the difference between rendang and penang, so forgive me if this is not the correct one. Formalities done, let’s proceed.

I am a big fan of no-fuss cooking. Toss everything in a pot and leave. Come back to a mouth-watering dish. Sound about perfect!

Beef penang is just that: melt-in-the-mouth pieces of beef, infused with all the lovely flavours of galangal (Filipino: langkawas), coconut, lemongrass, chili and kaffir lime. All it requires is basic prep.

Cheap cuts work best for slow cooking. Shin of beef is ideal, as the tough, sinew-y flesh is guaranteed to turn moist and buttery. A trick for this recipe is to use pre-made red curry paste (no MSG, no E-numbers), and awaken the flavours by using fresh ingredients too. I used:

1.5 kg shin of beef, chunks/diced

2 tins coconut milk (no E-numbers please!), about 800mL

2 tbsps red curry paste

2 stalks of fresh lemongrass, bashed

6 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 pcs star anise

2 sticks cinnamon

1 tbsp grated ginger

10 large fresh kaffir lime leaves, shredded

1 tsp cumin seeds

A bit of ghee / coconut oil

Fish sauce

1. Pre-heat oven to 140C.

2. In an oven-friendly pan, heat 2 tbsp ghee/oil on medium and fry the curry paste, garlic, ginger, cumin, lemongrass, cinnamon and star anise until fragrant. Make sure they do not burn.

3. Turn heat up, put the meat in and partially brown for about 5 minutes, stirring every now and then.

3. Pour in the coconut milk and stir. This should cover the meat. If not, top up with a little water. Heat up to boiling.

4. Cover and place in the oven, and let cook for about 3 hours.

5. Check the tenderness of meat and adjust seasoning with fish sauce.

6. Put back in for another 30 minutes or an hour.

7. Take out and stir in shredded lime leaves.

8. Serve on rice or lots of vegetables of your choice.

This keeps well in the fridge or freezer, and tastes so much better after a few days. If it lasts that long. ;)

Pulled Pork

I bet many have been wowed by the utter deliciousness of pulled pork sandwiches/wraps/buns. Juicy and flavourful with melt-in-the-mouth texture. Surely such complex creation can only be achieved by the select few gastronomic geniuses!?? Wrong.

Only two key things are needed: great ingredients and patience. The process is so forgiving; things do not have to be exact. Adjustments can be made. There is almost limitless room for error. A bonus for those who prefer to free-style in the kitchen (i.e., me). ;) You’ll need:

Around 2 kg pork shoulder off-the-bone (belly works fine too)

1 head of garlic, crushed

2 onions, roughly cut

2 tbsp tomato paste/puree

3 tsp sea salt (or less, you can always adjust at the end)

Lots of crushed black peppercorns

2 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Some dried bay leaves, maybe 4

Hot water

1. Pre-heat oven to 140C.

2. Mix everything (apart from the pork) in a pan that can accommodate the size of the pork using about a cup of water.

3. Place the pork in the pan skin side down, then top up with hot water until just about fully covered.

4. Cook in the oven for 2 hours. Turn the pork, skin side up for the remaining 2 hours just to give the skin a bit of colour.

5. Take the pork out and leave to cool.

6. Heat the cooking liquor until reduced. Test and play with the seasoning.

7. Once the pork has cooled, start ‘pulling’ using 2 forks.

8. Return to the liquor to re-absorb all the goodness.

9. Eat however you please.

Easy Spicy Beef Pieces

It’s been a long time coming. Apologies, apologies! Have been so busy with work, training and flat hunting.  The latter is exhausting and occasionally frustrating. Fingers crossed one with a good dining space is available and hopefully a paleo supperclub might just materialise!!! Still far out though.

Right, this beef nibble is so easy.  All you need is a larder staple: red curry paste. Just make sure it does not contain nasty stuff like MSG and added sugar --- check the label. You can use sirloin for the meat, but I found flat iron steak works just as good. Half the price, too. Here are all you need:

1 kg flat iron steak, cut into thick strips

1.5 tbsp red curry paste (or more)

2 tbsp cane vinegar

2 tbsp fish sauce

3 cloves grated garlic

1 inch grated ginger

1 tbsp honey (optional)

1. Mix the marinade and dunk the meat in. Leave for 30 minutes minimum, overnight ideally.

2. Pan-fry on very high heat for about 2 minutes each side depending on the size of your beef. I prefer mine a little bit pink. TIP: do not crowd the pan, otherwise, the meat will steam.

3. Eat with your favourite veggies.

You can have this any time of the day. Great for breakfast with avocado and plum tomatoes.

Honey/Chinese Spiced Pork Skewers

Inspired by a recent visit to SE Asia, this recipe uses street-food cooking and Chinese spices. Marinated thin slices of pork belly are skewered and simply grilled or barbequed. Easy-peasy, and a good breakfast idea too.

Ingredients:

1 kg pork belly, sliced into thin pieces

For the marinade:

2 tbsps honey

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp ground cloves

1 tbsp fresh grated ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1. Mix the marinade and marinate the pork for at least 2 hours.

2. Soak the bamboo sticks in water for 30 minutes. This stops burning.

3. Skewer the meat. 

4. Grill on medium for about 5 minutes each side, basting with residual marinade with a little oil.

5. Devour. :)

Crispy Pork Belly

As you may have guessed already, we love pork at the Paleo Larder.  And many will agree that pork belly is the crowning glory of all swine cuts (beats tenderloin, anytime).

The mix of fat and muscle that melts in your mouth is just way too enticing. Then, there is the crackling. A bit tricky to get right, but when you do, it beats winning the Olympic gold. ;)

Most recipes will ask you to cook the meat at a really high setting in the oven then turn it down. We tried the opposite method over the weekend and it turned out ok actually. Better, actually. We think it is because the initial cooking at a lower temperature cooks the meat without burning or crisping, while driving out water. So when the temperature is ramped up, the skin crisps up nicely.

All you need is the best pork belly you can find (free-range, flown first class, went to Eaton, massaged, and had a facial J), oil and salt.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C fan.

2. Score the skin of the pork and dry with paper towels.  Rub with oil and season with salt all over.

3. Place in oven and cook for an hour, opening occasionally to let the steam out.  If water gathers in the pan, tip it out carefully.

4. After the hour, ramp the temp up to 180C for 20 minutes, then to 200C for another 20 minutes. Again, occasionally letting out steam.

5. Brush the skin with a little oil and season again. Grill under setting 2, or just one notch above the lowest.  At this stage, make sure that you keep an eye on it as it could burn.  If the skin burns before it crisps up (forms little bubbles), turn the setting down.  If it is taking ages, turn it up a bit.

6. Rest for 15 minutes or longer before carving.

7. Serve with lime, fish sauce and chilli dressing to cut through the richness.

Simple Brownies

These devilishly delicious brownies are so easy to make. Remove the chips if you want it strictly paleo as some chocolate chips use soy lecithin --- read the label. You may also add half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper if you are of the adventurous kind. ;)

Ingredients:

1 cup almond flour

½ cup cocoa powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt (remove if using salted butter)

Handful of dark chocolate chips (optional)

½ cup of melted coconut oil/ghee/butter or combination of any

½ cup of runny honey

3 whole eggs

Seeds from 1 vanilla pod (1 tsp extract is ok too)

1. Combine the dry ingredients (except for the chips) and set aside.

2. Beat the eggs, then add all the other liquids and whisk until the honey is dissolved.

3. Mix the liquid and dry ingredients.  This will be a bit runny.  Throw in some dark choc chips if you fancy.

4. Transfer into a greased 8x8 spring-form.

5. Bake at 175C (fan) for 20 minutes.  On the 20^th minute, check by inserting a toothpick/fork into the brownie. If it comes out clean, it should be ok. If not, bake for a further 3 to 5 minutes.

6. Thoroughly cool before cutting. My cake rose at the centre while cooking but actually flattened out once it cooled. 

*Warning: may cause addiction.

Pork Scratchings / Pork Popcorn

Pork (and fat in general) has had a bad reputation. Saturated fat, cholesterol, blah blah blah --- the demonisation of this delicious meat has gone on forever and this has got to change.

O well, a few stuff I’ve read indicate that dietary fat does not directly affect the levels in your blood.   I’m not going to bore you with science bits but what I am trying to say is that pork is delish and not as bad as what it’s been purported to be.

This pork popcorn recipe was lifted from a Gordon Ramsay recipe.  The skin is cooked in two stages and is fool-proof.  You can use long strips of skin or, like me, some irregular diamond cuts as Waitrose already sells their pork scored!

What you only need is pork skin and salt.  If this is not available, take a slab of belly, slice the skin off, maybe around half a centimetre thick. You can use the remaining belly for other recipe.

Stage 1:

• Generously salt both sides of the skin and wrap in paper towel and keep in the fridge for a day or two. The more dehydrated the skin becomes, the better.

• When ready, slice the belly however you want it.

• Heat a pan of oil over medium fire. Ramsay suggests 120C. I just waited about 5 minutes ;)

• Cook the skin in the oil in batches for 8-10 minutes. Do no overcrowd.  If the temperature is fine, the skin should not blister.

Take out and drain.

Stage 2:

• Turn the fire to high (or 190C).

• Fry the pieces again for 2 to 3 minutes. This time they will blister.

Take out and drain.

Season and enjoy!

Word of caution: Hot oil is really HOT! Careful not to burn yourself.