Recipe Photolog: Beef Rendang

Beef Rendang

I love rendang. However, the thought of pounding spices put me off from cooking it the authentic way. On the other hand, that doesn't stop me from making my favourite dish. I mean, why strain your arms pounding spices when there are absolutely delicious ready-to-use rendang pastes in stores waiting to be used for the lazy ones - ie yours truly?

The only spices that I added are onions, ginger, star anise, cinnamon and cardamom pods - all which are available in my pantry. You could omit the spices since the rendang paste is already very flavourful, but I just like the fragrance and taste that comes with it. =)

I also added kerisik, which made the rendang even more flavourful. It also thickened the rendang by about 10 folds, which is what a beef rendang supposed to be like, thick and creamy.

The secret to a tender beef rendang is to boil the beef chunks for 2 hours beforehand. You may reserve the beef stock for another recipe - say, beef soup with vegetables?

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This is my recipe:

Ingredients:

1 kg beef - chopped into bite-size pieces
1 liter of water
1 large brown onion - chopped finely
1 thumb-sized ginger - minced finely
1 cinnamon
1 star anise
4 green cardamom pods
1 packet of ready-to-use rendang paste
400 ml coconut cream (substitute with coconut milk if available)
1/2 cup of desiccated coconut for kerisik

Method:

1. Place the beef in a pot with water. Bring it to a boil. Once it is boiling, lower down the heat until simmering point. Let it simmer for 2 hours until tender.

2. To make kerisik: Toast desiccated coconut in a dry pan on low heat until the colour turns brown. Be very careful as they tend to burn easily. Leave aside.
(The other method would be toasting at 180 degrees celcius in a oven for 20 minutes).

3. Fry onions, ginger, cardamom pods, star anise and cinnamon until fragrant.

4. Add the rendang paste and stir well.

5. Add the chunks of beef. Mix everything well together.

6. Add the coconut cream. Allow it to simmer for 30 minutes until almost dry.

7. Add the kerisik. Mix well and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.

8. Serve hot with coconut rice. A Malaysian Speciality.

Fork-tender beef rendang.

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The beef rendang was extremely tasty.. Each morsel was coated with spices and tasted absolutely orgasmic. The kerisik did a very good job in blending the spices all together. As it was very flavourful, we only ate about a quarter of the beef rendang.

I froze one half and keep the other half for tomorrow's consumption. All the better as this will taste even better the next day.