Spicy Fried Beef

According to Wazir Jahan Karim, the author of  Feasts of Penang, Muslim Culinary Heritage, the original basic Nasi Kandar in the olden days would include fish curry, fried beef, hard-boiled egg and okra. So the second dish that I cooked from her book was Spicy Fried Beef.

It's  certainly not a simple dish to prepare as it entails a long list of ingredients & more than an hour to cook. But the effort is all worth it as the  meat is very tender & the gravy is sweet & very flavourful. This dish does go well with the Fish Curry when eaten with rice.

Spicy Fried Beef (Daging Goreng Rempah)
Recipe by Wazir Jahan Karim from Feasts of Penang, Muslim Culinary Heritage.
(I rearranged the ingredients & simplified the method.)

Ingredients:
1 kg lean beef, preferably topside
30g fennel powder*
20g turmeric powder*
100g coriander powder*
(*combine & add water & mix to form a paste)
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 kg red onions - peel & finely slice four & cut remainder into rings for garnish
10 cloves of garlic - finely sliced
4 slices ginger - cut into strips
2 sprigs coriander - separate leaves from stems & chop stems
4 cloves
5 cardamoms
1 cinnamon stick (10cm) - break into two
200g tomatoes - cut into small pieces & remove seeds
1 L water
2 tbsps thick sweet soya sauce
salt to taste
150 ml palm or rice oil (I used vegetable oil.)
Garnish:
onion rings
1 sprig  mint
1 green chilli - sliced into eight
1 red chilli - sliced into eight

Method:

1. Marinate beef with spice paste (*) & brown sugar. Leave aside for 1 hour.
2. Heat oil in deep pan. Fry onions & garlic to an even brown.
3. Add ginger, coriander stems, cloves, cinnamon stick & cardamons. Then add cut tomatoes. Stir until oil separates.
4. Add half a sprig of coriander leaves, marinated beef & water & stir for about one hour until beef is cooked. 
5. Add thick sweet soya sauce & salt. Reduce until sauce thickens & beef is tender. 
6. Garnish with mint, onion rings & chillies.

Serves 6-8 persons.

Preparation time:30 mins (excluding marination)

Cooking time: 1hr 20mins

I'm submitting this post to the following events:

1. Malaysian Food Fest, Penang Month hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies,
2. Little Thumbs Up hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders, organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of my little favourite D.I.Y. and
3. Cook-Your-Books organised by Kitchen Flavours.