Beef Rendang

Posted by petra08 on October 12, 2015 · 23 Comments 

Having never cooked Beef Rendang I discovered that it is like Swedish meatballs, or beef ragu, everyone seems to have their own twist on this dish.

I was sent John Torodes latest cokbook, My kind of Food, and was asked to cook one of the recipes and post a blog. I could choose any recipe from the cook book and I couldn’t resist the sound of the Beef Rendang. I have never cooked it before and what better time to try it?! You can find John Torodes’ original recipe here.

The rendang cooking method originally comes from a way of preserving meat in a tropical climate, originating from Indonesia. It means cookng meat slowly until the liquid evaporates and the meat is tender. The amount of spices gives this dish a complex and delicious flavour.

 

The first thing I did was to check my spice cupboard and I had pretty much everything except lemmongrass. The second thing I did was to get some shin of beef as suggested by John for this dish from the Black Pig. Shin of beef is an incredibly delicious cut but it needs longer cooking time. Once you have given the meat enough time to cook you are rewarded with very tender, full of flavour meat. It turned out to be perfect in this dish and I always try to get some if I make Pot au Feu.

 

I read through John’s recipe, it sounded absolutely delicious but I did a few tweaks to it,  hope you don’t mind John! Make the Rendang the day before if you can and let the flavours set overnight but if you can’t cook it the same day, it is still delicious.

 

Beef Rendang, adapted from John Torodes’ new cookbook, My Kind of Cooking

Preparation time 15 minutes 

cooking time 1 hour cooking under lid + about 2 ½+3 hours reducing the cooking liquids

serves 4-5

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1.2 kg or 42.3 oz beef, I used shin of beef but any cut that takes a bit longer to cook will work
• 2 lemon grass stalks or 4 tsp pre chopped lemon grass
• 4 dried kaffir lime leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 5 red chillies, sliced
• 4 yellow, quite mild chilles, sliced
• 7 cloves of garlic
• a good piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
• 3 onions, chopped fine
• 4 fresh bayleaves or 2 dried
• 2×400 gr coconut milk
• 1 pack cream of coconut
• 5 dl or 2.5 cup of beef stock
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil for cooking
• 1 tbsp raw cane sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp cocnut oil

I started by preparing all of the ingredients and make sure I didn’t miss anything. I cut the fat off the shin of beef before slicing and dicing it.

 

 

Chopping up three onions fine did bring a tear to my eye. I cut the peeled ginger in to small chunks.

 

 

I placed the spices for roasting in a seperate bowl. Roast them in a dry pan until they become aromatic.

 

John’s recipe said to de seed the chillies. I wanted a bit of a kick so I compromised and used five red chillies, seeds in and I also added four yellow, quite mellow chillies.

 

I thought the yellow chillies are too mild so I cut a chunk, tried it and thought it didn’t taste of much. As we had grown them I cut M a chunk and said it doesn’t taste of much. He didn’t agree with me and sat with his “mouth on fire” for half an hour but refused to say anything until the next day! Heat level in a dish is so personal! As the curry cooked I thought I might need a raita to go with the Rendang to add something soothing instead of cucmber salad.

 

I couldn’t get fresh lemon grass stalks so had to get some pre chopped from the supermarket. I thought it might not be enough so I added the kafir lime leaves as well.

 

To make the paste I used my spice grinder. I roughly chopped the ginger and peeled garlic cloves before adding the dry roasted herbs and the kaffir lime leaves and made a paste.

 

 

I have to admit the paste didn’t look too much but it smellt amazing. Last I mixed the paste with the lemon grass paste.

 

Add the oil to a pan and brown the meat in batches, you might not need all of it.

 

 

Remove the meat, add the chopped onions and the spice paste and cook the onions soft. You might need a tiny bit of the stock to get the carmelised meat from the bottom of the pan. Add the bayleaves, cinnamon and the sliced chillies.

 

 

Stir to mix and to cook the spice paste. John has a great description, cook it until is smells of Asia. It really does when the heat releases all of the aromas. Last add the meat and coat it with the mixture before adding the coconut milk, add the cream of coconut. Bring everything to a boil and mix and last add the stock.

Let boil on medium heat for an hour under lid. After an hour remove the lid and cook for another hour or until almost all of the liquid is gone, stiring frequently making sure it doesn’t get stuck to the bottom of the pan and burn.

 

I was worried as the Rendang was a bit pale when I removed the lid and there was a lot of cooking liquid

 

As I removed the lid this is what it looked like after forty five minutes.

 

When the cooking liquid starts to reduce stir frequently or it will sick to the bottom of the pan.

 

This is where I left it day one and I kept the curry in the fridge over night to let the flavours settle but you can of course cook it in one go.

Once the curry is almost dry add the coconut oil and “fry” the curry, caramelising the remaining liquid sticking to the meat, releasing even more flavour. The curry will now be darker and have a wonderfully rich flavour.

 

 

I did think about making a flat bread but in the end I wasn’t sure and decided to make a pearl barley salad with tomato and tomatillo. I grew tomatillos this year and chopped them up together with some black tomatoes and mixed with pearl barley to go with the curry.

 

Tomatillo

 

I did a raita to go with the curry with yoghurt, cucumber and coriander.

 

Raita

 

The curry takes a little time to cook but you will be well rewarded. It was hard to choose one recipe as there are so many that sounds not just like John’s kind of food but also my kind of food!

I am, late but I still made it, bringing a plate of this to Fiesta Friday! Hosted by the super talented Angie, The Novice Gardener and co hosted by Mila, Milk and Bun and Kalia, GF Life 24/7. Check out Milas pumpkin pancakes, they look fluffy and very delicious! Kalia really made me laugh and baked vampire cookies, they look amazing!

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed under Allotment/Veg, Beef, Chilli, Cucumber, Garlic, Ginger, Main course, Onion, Pearl Barley, Recipe, Review · Tagged with #mykindoffood, beef randang, cucumber raita, John Torode, my kind of food, pearl barley, Pearl Barley salad, raita