Cambodian Spicy Sour Beef with Tamarind Sauce

This is yet another recipe from SBS Feast.

My parents have travelled to Cambodia with Operation Christmas Child, an organisation that delivers gifts for children at christmas, the only gift that most of these children will ever receive.

I bought my mum for her birthday the cambodian recipe book From Spiders to Water Lillies. The book is produced by a restaurant in Phnom Penh that is run by ex-street kids, and it turns out my mum ate there. 

So when I saw Cambodian recipes in the this months magazine I knew I would have to try them.

I couldn't find all the ingredients I needed, so I substituted my vegetables for more readily available ones. And I could not find pickled mudfish at the asian grocer so I used shrimp paste.

The base to this dish was a mix of lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal and garlic.

Other ingredients included this beautiful piece of steak, turmeric, tamarind, pickled mudfish (I used shrimp paste), fish sauce and palm sugar.

After cooking the lemongrass mix and turmeric you add the fish sauce, tamarind and shrimp paste that have been mixed with water.

Once this is simmering you add the beef and sugar and cook briefly before adding the blanched vegetables.

It was a really interesting dish and quite different to dishes I normally cook. 

The tamarind broth was quite delicious, packed full of flavour. 

Such a simple dish but healthy and tasty.