Beef Rendang is an Indonesian dish made by simmering beef
for hours in coconut milk and spices until the liquid has evaporated.
It's then fried in the oil the meat releases, caramelizing what's left
of the sauce around each piece of meat.
Of course if you are not a fan of beef, you can change the meat to chicken or even lamb. Please take note that chicken cook much faster than beef or lamb, so you need to cook the spices and coconut milk for some times before putting in the chicken. Otherwise the chicken meat might be too soft at the end of your cooking.
Ingredients:
For
spice paste
8 shallots
3 clove of
garlic
2
thumb-size of turmeric
1
thumb-size of ginger
2
thumb-size of galangal
8 stalks of
lemon grass
8 dried
chilies
8 chilies
padi / chilies
2 Aniseed
For
Kerisik
100g grated
coconut
1 tsp cumin
seeds
3 tsp coriander
seeds
1 whole
chicken chopped in pieces or 1kg beef
cut into cubes
200g grated
coconut for fresh coconut milk
Salt to
taste
1 cube of
gula Malacca (or brown sugar)
Methods:
1. Preparing kerisik: Toast all ingredients for
kerisik in a non-stick frying pan till it turns light brown. Be watchful during
the toasting process in order not to burn the ingredients.
Cool the toasted ingredients before blending it in a blender until it is
finely blended.
2. Preparing fresh coconut milk: Add
grated coconuts into 2 cups of water and squeeze the juice out of it. For
second round, do the same thing with 1 cup of water instead for a thinner
coconut milk.
Keep a handful of the squeezed grated coconuts and blend it with the
thinner coconut milk.
3. In
a non-stick pan, add the blended spice paste and half of the coconut
milk to boil.
15 minutes later, add in lime leaves, gula Malacca and kerisik.
4. For Beef Rendang: Add in beef cubes and continue
to simmer for another 1 hour until the oil is separated from the sauce. Stir occasionally to avoid the sauce sticking
on the pan. Add in the thicker coconut milk and continue to cook for another 20
minutes.
For Chicken Rendang: Simmer the paste for 40 minutes
before adding the chicken piece & the thicker coconut milk. Continue to
simmer for another 20 minutes until the oil separated from the sauce and
chicken is cooked. Stir occasionally to avoid the sauce sticking on the pan.
5. Add salt & sugar to taste.
6. Dish is ready to serve, it taste
better overnight.
