28. Brunei: Curry with aromatic rice

If you ask someone to point Brunei Darussalam on the world map, most likely the person will get stumped and struggle! No wonder as this country is one of the smallest nations on earth that is located on the island of Borneo in South East Asia. Besides sharing its border with the state of Sarawak, Malaysia, it also faces the South China Sea in the North. Brunei’s economy is based on natural gas and oil. Luckily nature doesn’t suffer to much, there are still many beautiful rain forests to be found in Brunei. The main religion practiced in the country is Islam and Sharia laws are strictly adhered to.

Things you didn’t know about Brunei:

• Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah is well known for being a keen collector of cars. Once the sultan had more than 530 Mercedes-Benzes, 500 Rolls-Royces and 360 Ferraris in his car collection.
• Table manners include eating and passing food with right hand only with the exception that while holding a heavy plate with a right hand, the left one can be used to support the right wrist
• Pointing the index finger while in conversation is considered to be rude, instead using thumb to point is encouraged.
• The 600 years old Sultanate of Brunei is the oldest Muslim dynasty in the region.

This curry has no specific name but I apparently it is very typical in Brunei, and so tasty!

Ingredients:

• Curry: 1 stick of sereh (lemongrass)
• hand full of chopped coriander
• 1 chili deseed and roughly chopped
• thumb size piece of ginger roughly chopped
• 1 large white onion roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic
• zest en juice of 1 lime
• stewing beef
• 1 can (400ml) coconut milk, canola oil,
• turmeric to taste, 

Aromatic rice:

1 cup of rice, cinnamon stick, 4 cardemon pods. 

• Put the sereh stick, coriander, chili, ginger, onion, garlic lime zest and juice in the blender and blend until it’s a smooth paste.
• Brown the beef in big pan with the canola oil. Add the the curry paste and fry a a little more for about 3 minutes.
• Add the coconut milk. Add bring to a boil. Then put in the oven 160 degrees C for about about an hour I let it sit a longer because I like my curry quite thick.

Ten minutes before serving you start the with the rice. Cook the rice as you normally would but add a stick of cinnamon and a stick of lemongrass.

Here is some Brunei music, it sounds really funny! Never heard anything like it 😛