Heat a wok to medium heat and add a little vegetable oil and a teaspoon of the curry paste you have just made.
Add the cubes of beef and brown them all over. This should take around 10 minutes.
Remove the beef cubes, lower the heat, add the coconut cream and the curry paste. Stir until the paste is incorporated into the coconut cream.
Return the beef to the wok and increase the heat until almost to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and leave for one hour, checking regularly to ensure that there is enough sauce to cover the meat. If it doesn’t cover the meat add some water or stock.
After one hour add the palm sugar, fish sauce, tamarind water, and peanuts. You can taste for seasoning now, but it’s better to wait another hour. Leave the curry uncovered on a light simmer.
After two hours the sauce should have thickened and you should have nice separation between the sauce and oil. This is a good thing. Check the meat to see if it’s fall-apart tender. You may have to keep cooking it for another hour at least, depending on the cut of meat.
As the sauce reduces further, add the coconut milk gradually. You can now adjust the seasoning, using more palm sugar to make it sweeter or fish sauce to intensify the flavour by making it more salty.
When it’s nearly ready to serve, I like to add a little ‘zing’ with a couple of lightly crushed birds-eye chillis. Completely optional.
Sprinkle on the rest of the peanuts and serve with steamed rice, some pickled vegetables, or a baguette to mop up that delicious sauce, as the Cambodians do.