Gaeng Gatti Beef Cheek Curry with Pickled Mustard Greens

Gaeng gatti has been on the Farang menu in one form or another since we opened. We've run it with white fish, mussels, prawns - right now it's a tiger prawn and samphire version that'll probably stay through the summer. The paste also goes out on Payst as the spicy yellow curry and it's one of the best sellers. It works across almost everything.

This beef cheek version is what I cook when I want something slow and deeply comforting. We get our cheeks from HG Walter, a London butcher with a serious reputation, and the ageing makes a real difference. More depth, more flavour in the finished sauce. It's not a quick dish, but most of the time is oven time. You just have to leave it alone.

The paste comes in from Bangkok every week. Ingredients sourced on Sunday, through Heathrow on Tuesday, into the kitchen Wednesday morning. We make it in small batches, same as all our pastes. This one is boiled rather than fried, which keeps it cleaner and more aromatic, then simmered in coconut cream with pandan, coriander root, small dried bird's eye chillies, fresh bird's eye chillies, fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind and makrut lime leaves. It finishes rich, fiery and fragrant.

A word of warning. I once got a significant amount of this paste in my eye while working it in a pestle and mortar. For about two minutes I genuinely thought that was it for my vision. It wasn't, but it was not a good few minutes. Salt water sorts it out immediately - we keep saline solution at arms reach in the restaurant at all times. You could wear sunglasses while you grind. You will get some looks.

The pickles are key. Make them ahead of time. The longer they sit, the sharper and more interesting they get, and that acidity is what stops the dish feeling too heavy.

Gaeng Gatti Beef Cheek

Serves: 4 Prep: 45 minutes Cook: 3 hours Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients

For the curry

• 1kg aged beef cheek, trimmed and cut into large pieces

• 3 tbsp gaeng gatti curry paste (Farang house paste or Payst spicy yellow curry)

• 400ml coconut milk

• 500ml beef stock

• 2 tbsp fish sauce

• 1 tbsp palm sugar

• 1 tbsp tamarind water

• 2 makrut lime leaves, torn

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

For the pickled mustard greens

• 200g mustard greens, chopped

• 150ml rice vinegar

• 150ml water

• 2 tbsp sugar

• 1 tbsp salt

• 2 makrut lime leaves

• 1 small handful sweet basil

To serve

• 1 small cucumber, lightly pickled and sliced

• 4 shallots, finely sliced and fried until crisp

• Sweet basil leaves

• Steamed jasmine rice

Method

1. Start with the pickled mustard greens. Bring the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and makrut lime leaves to a gentle simmer and stir until dissolved. Pour over the chopped mustard greens and sweet basil and leave to cool. Make these ahead if you can - an hour minimum, longer is better.

2. Preheat the oven to 150°C fan. Heat the oil in a heavy ovenproof pan and add the curry paste. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring, until fragrant. Add the coconut milk gradually, working it into the paste until smooth and combined.

3. Add the stock, fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind water and makrut lime leaves. Stir well, then add the beef cheek. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and transfer to the oven for around 3 hours until the meat is completely tender and the sauce has deepened.

4. Before serving, taste and adjust. The curry should be rich and savoury with a clean sourness lifting it. More fish sauce for salt, tamarind for acidity, a little palm sugar if it needs rounding out.

5. Serve over jasmine rice and finish with the pickled mustard greens, pickled cucumber, crispy shallots and sweet basil.

Chef's notes

If you're making this with fish - white fish works well, as do prawns - swap the beef stock for fish or chicken stock. The curry becomes lighter and more suited to warmer months, which is how we run it at Farang through the summer. Finish with a squeeze of kalamansi lime if you can get hold of it.

The paste is available for next day delivery at payst.co.uk. More recipes and the full Farang story at faranglondon.co.uk.