Thinly sliced rump in a peanut and coconut sauce, on the table in twenty minutes. Four servings.
Ingredients
- 500 g beef rump steak, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp peanut oil
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 small red chilli, thinly sliced, optional
- 1 tsp lemon rind, grated
- 3 tsp curry powder, to taste
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp peanut butter, smooth, heaped
- 250 ml coconut milk
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander
Cook the aromatics before any liquid
Onion, garlic, chilli, lemon rind and curry powder together for one minute.
The source calls this an essential step and it is right. Curry powder is a blend of ground spices, and ground spices release their aromatic compounds into fat rather than water.
Added to the coconut milk later, they would taste dusty and raw. A minute in hot oil first blooms them.
The lemon rind belongs in this stage too. Its oils are volatile and heat draws them out.
The hot pan is the point
Which is the other reason for cooking the aromatics first.
By the time they have had their minute, the pan is properly hot. That is exactly what you want for searing thin beef strips: they colour in seconds rather than releasing liquid and stewing.
Add the meat and cook until just brown. Just is the operative word.
Do not cook it long
The source makes this point clearly and it is the difference between tender and chewy.
The strips are thin, so they cook almost immediately. Everything after that is warming through and combining flavours, not cooking meat.
Five minutes at a simmer once the sauce goes in. Longer and the beef tightens and goes tough, which is what happens to lean cuts held at heat.
Stir well when the sauce goes in
Soy sauce, coconut milk and peanut butter added together.
The stirring is doing something specific: lifting the browned residue from the base of the pan and dissolving it into the sauce. That fond carries most of the flavour developed during searing.
Peanut butter is thick and it needs the stirring to disperse. Keep going until the sauce is smooth rather than streaked.
Rump, and the alternatives
Five hundred grams, thinly sliced.
Rump is lean, flavourful and suits stir-frying when cut thin. Rib-eye or porterhouse also work and are more forgiving because of their fat.
Chicken breast tenderloins substitute directly, which the source suggests. Cook them a little longer, until opaque throughout and reaching 165F.
Slice against the grain, which shortens the muscle fibres and makes a lean cut noticeably more tender.
Smooth peanut butter, not crunchy
Two heaped tablespoons.
Smooth disperses into the coconut milk and creates the creamy sauce this dish is built on. Crunchy leaves nut pieces suspended in a thinner liquid, which is a different and less cohesive result.
Natural peanut butter separates in the jar. Stir it thoroughly before measuring.
Chilli to taste
One small red chilli, thinly sliced, marked optional.
The source notes you can remove the seeds before slicing to reduce the heat, which is where most of it sits along with the white pith.
Curry powder at three teaspoons is already carrying warmth. The chilli adds a sharper heat on top rather than replacing it.
Coriander at the end
Two tablespoons, stirred in off the heat.
Cooked coriander loses its aroma and goes grey within a minute. Stirred in at the end it stays bright and provides the only fresh element in an otherwise rich dish.
The source acknowledges some people dislike it, in which case leave it out rather than substituting.
Serving
Over steamed basmati or jasmine rice, which soaks up the sauce.
Rice matters here more than as a filler. The sauce is rich and quite thin, and without something to absorb it a good deal ends up in the bottom of the bowl.
Satay Beef
Equipment
- Large frying pan or wok
- Sharp knife
- Grater
- Wooden Spoon
Ingredients
- 500 g beef rump steak thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp peanut oil
- 1 large onion sliced
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 small red chilli thinly sliced, optional
- 1 tsp lemon rind grated
- 3 tsp curry powder to taste
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp peanut butter smooth, heaped
- 250 ml coconut milk
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander
Instructions
- Cook the aromatics. Heat the pan, add the peanut oil, onion, chilli, garlic, lemon rind and curry powder and cook for 1 minute. This blooms the spices in the fat and brings the pan to searing heat.
- Sear the beef. Add the thinly sliced beef and cook until just brown, which takes very little time given how thin the strips are.
- Make the sauce. Add the soy sauce, coconut milk and peanut butter and stir well until smooth, lifting the browned residue from the base of the pan.
- Simmer. Reduce the heat and simmer 5 minutes, no longer, or the beef will tighten and toughen.
- Finish. Stir in the fresh coriander off the heat and serve over steamed basmati or jasmine rice.
