Kari Dal dengan Daging (Lentil Curry with Beef)

Ready to be served.

Mum decided to make this after my sister Ainita, the one in the UK requested it. Its a long process from the tenderising of the meat to the editing of the video. We even had to go down to Port Dickson for the day to get over the cooking of this Dal...hahaha. We cooked it last week and its taken me this long to edit the video. And I had to edit it down from 54 minutes to just under 28 minutes. It was a challenge. Tina was around so a lot of kacau-bilau but in the sweetest way, of course. ;-)

We went to Kajang market to get the ingredients. Somehow this time it was extra smelly according to my mom. Thank god I stayed in the car to take care of my niece... my saviour, hahaha. But saying that, I find Kajang market very interesting. It still has the old element attached to it. People are friendly and chit chatty not so much for a sale but just plain chit chats. Of course mum has her regular meat man, fish man and all her other men lah. ;-) oooo...that didn't sound right but you know what i mean. I managed to take some pictures with my phone when I was there last which was awhile back. I think during the fasting month. Will post when I have a better story to tell.

Anyways, psyche yourself when you decide to make this. It takes awhile to prepare and make but when its finished... memang very yummy. Tak menyesal lah for sure! Its eaten with rice, nasi minyak, roti, roti canai and anything lah yang ada dalam dapur tu. Asalkan sedap makan je. ;-)

Ingredients A (for the stock and tenderising the beef)

• 850 grams of beef (daging lembu) cut into small pieces. You can use mutton to replace the beef if you prefer.
• 650 grams of ribs (tulang lembu)
• 7 garlic (bawang putih), crushed but still intact ie just broken.
• 2 inches of ginger (halia), crushed but still intact ie just broken.
• 2 star anise (bunga lawang).
• 2 inches of cinnamon (kayu manis).
• 5 cardamon (buah pelaga).
• Coarse salt (garam kasar)
• 1/2 tablespoon of black pepper (lada hitam)

 Ingredients B (the lentils)
• 3 cups of lentils (dal ) cleaned and to be soaked for at least 2 hours to soften it.

Ingredients C, very colourful, no?

Ingredients C (the vegetables)
• 4 young cooking bananas (pisang muda), skinned and cut into 4 pieces. Soak it in water to to avoid oxidation.

• 4 young mangoes (manga muda), skinned and sliced.
• 4 long beans (kacang panjang), cut into 2 inch length.
• 1 tomato, cut into 4.
• 1 carrot (lobak merah) skinned and sliced.
• 2 red chili (cili merah), seeded and cut into two length ways.
• 1 green chili (cili hijau), seeded and cut into two length ways.
• 1 round brinjal (terung bulat), cut into 6. Soak it in water to avoid oxidation.
• 1 large onion (bawang besar), cut into 4
• 1 potato (kentang), skinned and cut into 6 and soak in water to avoid oxidation.

Ingredients D, bahan penumis.

Ingredients D (for the curry)
• 10 shallots (bawang kecil) sliced.
• 1 to 2 inches of ginger (halia) cut into strips.
• 6 garlic (bawang putih) sliced.
• 3 strips of curry leaves (daun kari) .
• 3 star anise (bunga lawang).
• 2 inches cinnamon (kayu manis).
• 4 to 5 cardamon (buah pelaga).
• 6 to 7 tablespoon dried chili paste (cili boh).
• 3 to 4 tablespoon meat curry powder (rempah kari daging).
• Thick coconut milk (santan).
• Some ghee.

The Method Part 1: Tenderising the beef and making some stock (using ingredient A and B)
• Heat up the wok and put some oil.
• Put in the star anise, cinnamon and cardamon first. And then put in your garlic and ginger and coarse salt. Leave it for half a minute or less.
• Then put all the meat in and mix well.
• Add some black pepper and stir till everything is mixed.
• Mum calls it 'sealing the flavour' process, which really means the red meat has gone brownish.
• So once everything is well mixed and 'sealed', transfer the meat to your slow cooker. (You can use your stove too but keep adding water if it gets dry.)
• Add enough water to sink the meat and leave for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
• After 2 hours, strain the lentils and add it into the slow cooker.
• After another half an hour, try to take all the star anise, cardamon and cinnamon out of the cooker. And strain the meat and lentils from the stock and put aside.

The Method Part 2: The curry (using ingredient B and C)
• Heat up your wok. Put in some ghee and oil.
• When its hot, add the star anise, cardamon, cinnamon and the curry leaves.
• Then add the shallots, ginger and garlic. Mix well and let it cook till its yellow-ish.
• Add your dried chili paste and mix well to cook the chili. Add some course salt but not too much since the stock is already salted.
• Add the meat curry powder and mix well.
• After 3 to 4 minutes and the mix is boiling, add the thick coconut milk and leave to boil.
• When its boiling, add the carrots, potato, banana and the brinjals first. These are the hard vegetables that needs a longer time to cook. Leave for about 15 minutes.
• Then add the meat and the lentils into the wok and mix well.
• Leave to boil for awhile and add the rest of the vegetables except the tomato which is added 3 minutes later.
• If the gravy looks a bit too thick, add some diluted coconut milk and leave to simmer for another 5 minutes.
• Now its ready to be eaten. ;-)

It is a long process I must admit. Keep referring to the video to see whether you are doing it right. Please do try it cause after all that trauma and hectic-ness, you might just be pleased with the result. And please comment if you tried it to tell us what you think.

Here is the video. Tina and mum are in this. ;-)

I just realised that there are some editing mix up in the video where it says that the cooking starts finally and it didn't. ;-) And a few more mistakes during that part.  My apologies. I've actually trashed the originals so I can't really correct it. Yikes! Itu lah kalau buat editing tengah malam.

So... masak lah dengan kasih sayang. Memang lagi sedap. Enjoy!