RCP: BEEF RENDANG

I thought I'd like to share this classic, traditional dish of the Malays. Served usually in special gatherings or special occassions, rendang has its fair share of varieties, depending on which part of Malaysia it comes from. However, this particular rendang recipe is from Pahang, the central state of Peninsular Malaysia, my home town...



BEEF RENDANG

[list=]2 kg beef topside, cut into large chunks
About 1.5liter thick coconut milk
1 cup kerisik (fresh coconut, finely grated, lightly toasted in a pan on low fire till golden brown, allow to cool then dry-mill)
150g chilli paste (made from dried chillies. Chillies de-seed, blanch with hot water till soften, blend with some water and a few spoons of cooking oil)
3-4 Kaffir lime leaves or turmeric leaves shredded coarsely[/list]

TO BLEND TOGETHER

250 g galangal
3 stalks lemongrass
150 g fresh turmeric
150 g fresh ginger (skin peel off)
150 g garlic
500 g shallots

Salt to taste


METHOD

Combine all ingredients except kerisik in a wok and cook over low fire, stirring ocassionally (or crusts will form at bottom of wok and it will burn gravy) until gravy starts to thicken. May take about 1 to 1.5 hours. Add salt and adjust taste. Only add kerisik to the last 20 min of cooking as the paste will quickly thicken gravy.

Great companion to saffron-rice, steam white rice, briyani or any bread.

Note: Im not sure whether all ingredients are available at your place but do let me know if you need to find out any substitutes. You may replace beef with chicken or beef liver.

Hanie,

This looks FANTASTIC! I can't wait to try it. Fortunately, I have no trouble obtaining all of the ingredients in the metropolitan Boston area.

Thank you for posting this. I'll be sure to post a reply when I've made this dish.

-Paul W.

Heya Paul, you may google up for the image of beef rendang as I still havent uploaded one of my own from my restaurant ;-(( At least you will have the idea on how the final product look like. Have fun experimenting and Im glad you will have no issue in looking for the basic ingredients.

[Jenise]

Hanie, this is one of my absolute favorite dishes from your part of the world, and one I can't recall making at home. If I have, then I didn't get the result I hoped for and didn't save the recipe--could be either, but the net result is I've been looking for a good Beef Rendang recipe and I'll bet yours is the one that will hit home. I'll add my thanks to Paul's.

Thanks for posting this Hanie.

We currently have a participant from Malaysia at my workplace and she teamed up with a man from Indonesia a couple weeks ago and cooked a fantastic dinner for everyone. This was one of the dishes. Delicious!

Jenise, some family calls to omit the kerisik alltogether, depending on which part of the state you are in. So, feel free to try both variations. You can also substitute the meat to chicken.

and cooked a fantastic dinner for everyone. This was one of the dishes. Delicious![/quote]

What were the dishes? Im all excited to know.

Hanie,

A question on the recipe. When you say "to blend together", do you mean to grind together to a paste in a blender or food processor?

-Paul W.

Hanie,

A question on the recipe. When you say "to blend together", do you mean to grind together to a paste in a blender or food processor?

-Paul W.

Paul, its to grind together in a blender, add some water (not too much), just enough to grind it, and it will turn to a nice paste.

I cooked this dish on Saturday. I wasn't able to find fresh turmeric (the local Indian grocer forgot to pick some up for me), so I substituted brine-preserved fresh turmeric instead, and cut down on the added salt.

It came out delicious. So aromatic! But I made a few mistakes. It was blazingly hot--I think I overdid it on the chile paste. I don't think I got the spice balance quite right, either. I ran short of garlic and ginger, and as a result the bitter quality of the turmeric stuck out a bit in the flavors (or maybe this was because I used brine-cured instead of fresh?).

Anyway, it's still yummy, and next time I make it I'll try to get the proportions better, and to grind the fibrous fresh spices (turmeric and galangal) finer.

Thanks for sharing this recipe with us. Once I get this right, I can see this is going to be one of my favorite special occasion dishes.

-Paul W.

Paul, I didnt know that theres brine-preserved fresh tumeric..! I think most Malaysians will take every day item like this for granted as you can find this everywhere here. I cant really comment on the bitter taste of the tumeric as I myself have not experienced cooking with it. ;-(

Anyways, just make sure you got the "kerisik" right, not to overly excited to over roast the coconut.

Rendang requires patience and practice.. and I am sure you will get right soon.

Paul, I didnt know that theres brine-preserved fresh tumeric..! I think most Malaysians will take every day item like this for granted as you can find this everywhere here. I cant really comment on the bitter taste of the tumeric as I myself have not experienced cooking with it. ;-(

Anyways, just make sure you got the "kerisik" right, not to overly excited to over roast the coconut.

Rendang requires patience and practice.. and I am sure you will get right soon.

Fresh turmeric may be an everyday item in Malaysia, but it's rather rare and hard to find in New England, USA. It shows up every now and then in supermarkets. It is more common in the Indian grocery where I buy most of my spices, but it still is not always available and in fact they were out of it last week, so I substituted the brined turmeric roots.

The kerisik turned out just right, not over-roasted.

There was a lot of the Rendang left over, and I had some more tonight. It tasted better warmed up again than when freshly cooked, so perhaps I got impatient and didn't cook it long enough. The flavors seemed more married this time around.

One other thing I must do next time is to grind the fibrous spices (galangal, ginger, turmeric) more finely than I did this time. That would also help the flavors to mellow out during the cooking. The food processor really isn't a substitute for a South Asian-type wet grinder (which I don't own). I didn't really get a smooth paste. I'll either give everything a sojourn with the old mortar and pestle, or put it in the blender with some of the coconut milk (it all gets thrown in together, anyway, so why not).

This is a dish worth learning how to perfect.

-Paul W.