Beef Tendon & Beef Shin Curry (咖哩牛筋牛腱)

Beef tendon, an uncommon ingredient in the West but praised in the East, is what connects muscle to bone. It is very tough and chewy and therefore requires slow cooking, proper slow cooking! Once it is cooked (properly!) it becomes soft and gelatinous, melt-in-your-mouth like. Low in fat and packed with collagen (yes ladies, if eat regularly, this stuff is more effective and economical than Creme de la Mer!) I am definitely not a chicken-breast and white meat only eater but more of a 'Nose to Tail', make-use-of-most-parts-of-animal type. Offal, tail, trotters, feet, cheeks etc you named it I have probably tried it. Is there a bottom line? Well, it depends. If it is nicely cooked then I would probably give it a whirl.

Tendon is not widely available in UK supermarkets, perhaps butcher will have them if you asked in advance. I got mine from the frozen compartment of an Asian supermarket and it does clearly labelled the origin as UK, which gives it a bit of reassurance that it was not horse tendon (I hope!). To enhance the overall texture and flavour, I also bought some shin of beef from the butcher. Brasing steak will do just fine as well.

Serves 4

300g beef tendon, diced into big chunks

300g shin of beef, ditto

60g plain flour, seasoned with salt & pepper

3 medium potatoes, diced into medium chunks

2 large onions, cut into wedges

2 tbsp curry powder

2 tbsp Garam Marsala

1 tbsp ground cumin

2 tsp chilli powder

5 cardamom pods

3 cloves

1 star anise

1 bark of cinnamon stick

Dash of dark soy sauce

500ml boiling water

1. Coat the tendon and shin with seasoned flour.

2. In a casserole dish, heat some oil and brown the tendon and beef all around on a fairly high heat. Leave them to cool on a plate.

3. In the same dish, toast the cardamon pods, cloves & star anise lightly until their aroma fills the air but not burnt.

4. Add in the onion wedges, tendon, shin and rest of the spices. Cook in medium heat for 15 minutes. Make sure everything is evenly coated with the spices.

5. Pour in the boiling water so it just covers everything and place the cinnamon stick on top. Cover and bring it to boil then turn the heat down and leave to simmer for 30 minutes.

6. Turn it down to the lowest heat and leave to cook for 5 hours or until the tendon is jelly like. Alternatively, transfer the content into a slow cooker and leave to cook for 5 hours.

7. Serve with steamed rice and seasonal vegetable.