Massaman Short Ribs

For the sides: decide how much or what you want yourself. Some thai basil would be good. 

This is a thai dish, I remember sitting on a beach in Koh tao and had the most amazing fish massaman. I’m a big fan of peanuts, but crunchy ones and amn’t a peanut butter feen. 

Finishing with lots of herbs will totally up-level this dish. 

Roasting the ingredients in Thai known as ‘khua.” Traditionally, the ingredients were roasted over fire, but to save time we dry roasted them in a hot wok.

It’s worthwhile making your own curry paste, it’s not hard, but if you don’t fancy it, there’s definitely decent ones out there. 

I think with every meal I’m creating, I always think, salty, sweet, acid and then… beautiful. If it looks gorgeous and colourful, i think it’ll be good for us too. 

I do not have two le creuset pots so… here’s one I made yesterday because, we actually want to eat this and well, it’s best the next day. Aren't all curries. 

For this, if you’ve salted your meat, you’ll get a lovely crispy crust on the beef when it’s fried. 

Truth is I don’t love rice but I’ll have it here, maybe, to soak up the juices. 

Enough for: 4

Takes: 3 hours

1tbsp beef dripping 

4 short ribs 

1 x 400ml tin coconut milk 

500ml chicken stock 

1 Bay leaf 

2tbsp palm sugar 

1 tsp cardamom pods, seeds removed and bashed

Chunk cinnamon stick 

1/4tsp white peppercorns 

For the curry paste: 

Zest 1 lime

100g peanuts

2 red Red Chillies, roughly chopped 

2 shallots, roughly chopped 

3 garlic cloves, peeled 

Chunk ginger, finely chopped 

2 tsp ground cumin 

To serve: 

Crispy baby gem

Toasted sesame seeds 

Fluffy rice 

Dhill 

Mint leaves 

Lime wedges 

Roasted peanuts, crushed 

1. Season the meat and leave to come to room temperature about an hour before using them, we do this so the salt has a little more time to diffuse into the meat, if you can do this a day in advance, do. If you’re reading through this method in advance of cooking, GO YOU! I’m the worst for checking I’ve all the ingredients then barging into the recipe only to then realise I  should have read the bit at the start that really would have helped me, or the method. Duh Sarah! Also, salt does not dry out the meat, it does actually, dissolve protein strands which allow water absorption through cooking, it’s going to make your meat tender and juicy. 

2.  Heat your deep sided casserole. Add the dripping, then the beef to the pan and turn every so often until browned on all sides, this will take about 10 minutes. Do this in batches if needs be. Set aside on a plate, but leave all those juices in the pan. 

3. To make the paste add the ingredients to the leftover beef fat, to toast for 3-4 minutes, tip into a pestle and mortar and bash to a paste or using a mini blender. It’ll be a little chunker if you use a mini blender. 

4. Return the beef to the pan along with the coconut milk, chicken stock, bay leaf, palm sugar, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick and white peppercorns. Cook for 3 hours in total, if your sauce hasn’t reduced much, take the lid off for the last say, 30 minutes. 

5. Now to feed everyone, I’d pop the pot on the table with all the little bits of sides you like, which reminds me of thailand, everyone can add what they want then.