Hot Chilli Beef

Be warned that this powerful chilli beef is a dish not for the faint hearted, and only for those who love the heat from spicy, dried red chillies.

30 minutes

2 hours

150ºC

Ingredients

1 kg stewing beef

- with some fat, cut into 5cm x 8cm pieces
100g unsalted butter
Olive oil
5 dried long red chillies
5 cloves garlic

- roughly chopped
1 tsp whole cumin
5 small bay leaves
2 pieces of orange rind
Coarsely ground black pepper
Sea salt
Jasmine rice

- steamed

Instructions

01 Melt butter and a splash of olive oil in a casserole pan.
02 Add the cubed meat, seal over a moderate heat and cook slowly for 30 minutes or so until all the fat has been rendered away.
03 Remove excess fat from the pan.
Hot chilli water:
04 In in a mug add the dried chillies and boiling 500m water, allow to soak for 30 minutes.
05 Remove chillies from the water and reserve the water.
Cooking liquid/stock:
06 Chop roughly and place in a food processor with the garlic, cumin and chilli water. Blend until smooth.
Assemble to bake:
07 Add the chilli water, bay leaves and orange rind to the beef, mix well.
08 Bring all to a slow simmer, add the lid and place in the oven for a slow bake for 2 hours, until the meat is tender and the sauce reduced.
09 Serve with steamed jasmine rice.

Notes

The recipe works for all types of meat, but it must be the slightly fatty type as due to the early rendering method, any excess fat is discarded, leaving only tender, succulent protein.