You can travel to the other side of the world, but nothing beats a good pork scratching. Foodie friends Dave Myers and Si King, aka The Hairy Bikers, tell Keeley Bolger about their travels in Asia. Here is one of their recipes for you to try.

Ingredients:

Serves Four

2tbsp vegetable oil

750g lean stewing beef, chopped into 1cm cubes

5 lime leaves

2 stems of fresh green peppercorns or 1tbsp sweet brined green peppercorns (from a jar)

250ml beef stock

2-3 red bird’s-eye chillies, slashed

200ml canned coconut milk (low-fat is fine)

3 fresh tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped

1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into small dice

Fresh coriander leaves, to garnish

Steamed rice, sprinkled with roasted chilli flakes, for serving

For the curry paste:

6 green cardamom pods, seeds only

6 large dried red chillies

1tbsp coriander seeds

1 1/2tsp cumin seeds

20g galangal (a type of ginger), peeled and finely chopped

2 lemongrass stalks, white part only, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

10 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded

5 large Thai shallots (or 2 banana shallots), roughly chopped

2.5cm piece of fresh turmeric root, finely grated or 1 1/2tsp ground turmeric

1tsp shrimp paste 4tbsp fish sauce

1tsp salt 1tbsp vegetable oil

Method:

To make the curry paste, lightly crush the cardamom pods and split them open. Remove the seeds and put them in a spice grinder or a pestle and mortar (you can chuck the pods away).

Heat a small frying pan and dry roast the chillies for two to three minutes until slightly browned. Tip them into a small spice grinder or pestle and mortar with the cardamom seeds and return the frying pan to the heat.

Add the coriander and cumin seeds to the pan and roast them for a minute to release the flavours, then add them to the cardamom and chillies and grind or pound everything to a powder.

Add all the remaining ingredients and pound to make a paste, then set aside. If you prefer, use a spice grinder to blitz the spices to a powder, then transfer this to a food processor, add the remaining ingredients and process to a paste. (There will be enough paste to make two curries and you can store it in the fridge for two to three weeks or freeze for a month.) To make your curry, you will need a mediumsized casserole dish with a lid. Place the dish on the heat and add the oil. Brown the meat on all sides, working in batches so you don’t overcrowd the dish. When all the meat has been browned, tip it back into the casserole dish and add the curry paste (see above). Stir to coat the meat with the paste and cook for two to three minutes.

Add the lime leaves, green peppercorns, beef stock and red chillies, then cover and leave to cook gently over a low heat for about one hour and 45 minutes.

If you prefer, cook the curry in the oven (140C/Fan 120C/Gas 1) for a couple of hours, or until the meat is tender. Have a look every now and then and if it looks like it is drying out, add a little water as needed.

When the curry is cooked, stir in the coconut milk, add the tomatoes and red pepper, then continue cooking for a further ten minutes – the pepper should still have a bit of crunch. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with steamed rice sprinkled with roasted chilli flakes.

  • The Hairy Bikers’ Asian Adventure, BBC Two on Thursdays. An accompanying book is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20.