A celebration with Beef Rendang, Lamb Saag, Masoor Dahl and Onion Bhaji's - among other things! Part One - The Rendang

On the warmer from top left, clockwise - beef rendang, lamb saag, chicken tikka and masoor dahl. To the right some boiled basmati rice and bottom left samosas and bhajis.

Well what to do when your best friends celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, your favourite restaurant is closed, everyone's a little bit tight for time and cash, you do what you used to do when the four of you all started getting together years and years ago - you celebrate at home!

For Easter I got a new cookery book (I know another one!) The Hairy Bikers Great Curries and I already had a copy on the shelf of The Three Sisters Indian Cookbook and it's been ages since I cooked a big Indian meal from scratch, it used to be a regular occurrence in the 90's, but recently I've gone more for a self service roast meat and salad buffet when we all get together. When I asked though "do you fancy coming for a curry for your anniversary?"...it was a resounding "yes", with orders for something with lamb and definitely something with lentils, oh and if the kids (the grown up ones) come, the girls don't do too spicy, but Conor - Conor likes it hot! Some planning was certainly needed!

With a couple of weeks to go, I confidently wrote out my list; Lamb Saag - we all love spinach, it's rich in flavour but doesn't need to be high in heat, Lamb Kebabs - succulent and spicy, Chicken Tikka - an all round mild favourite for the girls, home made samosas, home make pakoras, basmati rice, I've never had a lentil dish before so I chose something not too daunting - a Masoor Dahl made with red lentil and, finally to be the piéce de resistance, I'd seen it being made on the TV on the Hairy Bikers Tour of Britain, I think, ironically - a Beef Rendang, not Indian I know but Indonesian and it looked rich and hot and delicious.

I made the Saag and Rendang in advance and froze them, I realised the Lamb kebabs were a step too far for 7 people, I ran out of time and had to give up on making the samosas M&S provided those, the Dahl I made on the day, along with the Bhaji's and rice. The tikka I intended to make on the day and it was included in my shopping from Ocado which added to the drama of the day by not turning up - due to technical difficulties and a whole lot else which is a story all on it's own.

The evening was great. Four friends and their children getting together over beer and curry to celebrate a great achievement - 25 years of marriage and a long friendship. I cant recommend it highly enough.

Beef Rendang

(adapted from Hairy Bikers Great Curries) Serves 8

Piping hot and you can see the red chillies and cinnamon sticks

Get your food processor and add 2 lemon grass stalks. You must peel off the hard outer layers first otherwise they will add some unnecessary crunch to your finished dish, and chop them into smaller lengths. Add 3 quartered red onions, 6 peeled cloves of garlic, 25g peeled, fresh ginger, 3g dried galangal (you can use fresh, it's better - about 30g if you can get it) and 3 chopped red chillies including the seeds. Then blitz it until you have a fine paste, you'll need to scrape the bowl down a couple of times, but you must whizz it until it's as close to a paste as you can get.

Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and tip in the onion paste, frying gently for a few minutes. You can do this either in a hob proof casserole or in a frying pan and then transfer everything to a oven proof casserole when it's ready.

Next add 2 teaspoons of ground cumin, a tablespoon of ground coriander and a teaspoon of turmeric to the mix. Give it all a good stir then add 1.5kg diced braising beef and fry until the meat is lightly browned all over. Pour in a 400ml can of coconut milk.

Leave the curry to simmer for 2.5 hours until the sauce becomes thick and rich, keep stirring to make sure it doesn't stick.

It's best made in advance, I froze mine, but you can leave it for a couple of days in the fridge to mature. When I defrosted it I just bought it gently up to temperature, I tasted it and I wanted it to be a bit hotter, so I sliced and fried 3 extra red chillies and stirred them in before serving.

I served it in a nice white bowl and would have loved to have served it whole dried chillies and curry leaves but I couldn't get them at the time.

We really enjoyed this, eaten with the additional chillies it was hot and fiery, the beef was soft and the sauce was just the right consistency to leave the flavour in your mouth, you could taste all the different elements, especially the ginger. The coconut milk gives a nice twang but the flavour in no way overpowers the overall taste. Will definitely make it again but would add some dried chili flakes to build the heat, as it was, if you didn't eat the additional chillies the sauce was mild-medium with a little bit of an after-burn.