Sunday Dining: Nasi Kandar (Black beef) with Apple Pie

Sunday night we needed a nourishing feed after spending the afternoon in the park recovering from a Saturday that involved an afternoon rave to Instra:mental and back to friends for champagne, red wine and gin. Having been inspired by Poh’s Kitchen (*sigh* Poh) a few nights previously we made Malaysian Black Beef.

Black Beef (Nasi Kandar)

1/4 cup oil
2 large onions
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic
500g beef, cut into 2cm cubes
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1 tbs cumin seeds, ground
1/2 tbs fennel seeds, ground
1/2 tbs garam masala
1 tsp pepper
1 cinnamon stick
3/4 tsp whole cloves
1 star anise
1/2 tsp ground cardamom (or 6 cardamom pods, bruised)
3cm stalk lemongrass, bruised
3 fresh tomatoes, cut into wedges
2 green chillies, cut in half lengthways (and remove seeds if they are of the small hot variety)
1 cup water
2 tblsp palm (or brown) sugar
1 tsp white sugar
1 stalk spring onion, roughly chopped
1 stalk coriander leaf, roughly chopped
1-2 tblsp mint leaves (to taste), roughly chopped

Heat oil and fry onion.ginger and garlic until brown. Add the cumin, fennel and garam masala. Stir for 1 minute until fragrant. Add the cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise and cardamom and stir. Add 1/2 cup water and soy sauce. Stir well. Add in the meat and another 1/2 cup of water. Add in the tomatoes, lemongrass, green chillies and sugar. Stir well.

Cook for about an hour, or until the sauce has thickened and the meat is tender.
Add in the spring onion, mint and coriander leaves. Stir and remove from the stove.

even better for lunch the next day :)

Apple pie

For the pastry
340g flour
225g butter
pinch salt
1 egg, separated
1/2 cup cold water

Combine flour and salt and rub butter in until it resembles breadcrumbs (easiest to do in a processor if you have one). Whisk together egg white and water and add to flour. Combine mixture and bring together into a ball (handling the mixture as little as possible as this will make it tough). Divide into 2 balls, flatten into discs and refrigerate for about an hour.

For the filling
6 medium cooking apples
3/4 cup caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tblsp flour

Combine apples, sugar and lemon juice and set aside until sugar has dissolved. Add flour and mix well.

Roll discs out to about 3mm thick and place one in a pie dish. Fill with apple filling and top with the other disc and trim/curl edges so they look fancy. Brush with egg white and top with the extra sugar. Bake for about an hour, until pastry is golden.