Rendang is a very funny dish for me. I was cutely thinking it is a Dutch dish, because it is so popular in The Netherlands due to the Indonesian population. But it has nothing to do with the Dutch culture and it is in fact a dry curry dish popular in South-East Asia like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. I really love it, it is so flavorful and uses some of my favorite ingredients. Since is is using so many ingredients that Thai cuisine uses, I went for inspiration to my favorite Thai channel, Pailin’s Kitchen and followed mainly her recipe for rendang. Here’s how I made it!
Rendang
Servings: 5
Cooking time: 3.5 hours
Difficulty: medium (mainly because of the cooking time and amount of special ingredients)
Ingredients
- 700 grams of beef chuck
- 4 shallots
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 root of galangal, ~5 cm
- 1 root of ginger, ~5 cm
- 2 small stalks of fresh lemongrass
- chili flakes that are not too spicy
- spices: 1 star anise (I used fennel seeds), 5 cardamom pods , 1 cinnamon sticks and 8 cloves
- 1 coconut can
- 1 tablespoon of tamarind sauce
- lime leaves
- baked coconut flakes (I personally skipped this, oops, sorry Pailin)
- salt to taste
Directions
- For making the rendang paste: in a blender add the roughly chopped shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger and lemongrass. I added only the top of the lemongrass, the very woody part I smashed it and added it whole in the curry, since I was afraid that my blender is not strong enough to make it a paste. Add a bit of water if needed.
- Add the chili flakes too. It is better to use a variety that is not too spicy so that you can use more for that beautiful red color. I had only spicy pepper, so I added only little in this recipe.
- In a mortar grind the star anise (or fennel seeds), cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. I admit that some of these I had them in powder and I simply added powder. Then add the grind spices to the blender mix and combine.
- Add the paste in a pot with a bit of oil or reduced coconut milk like Pailin is using and fry for a few minutes to wake up the spices.
- Then add the chopped beef and let it brown while mixing.
- You can now add the coconut milk, a bit of more water.
- Add a tablespoon of tamarind sauce and salt as much as you think (you can add later too).
- Don’t forget to add the lemongrass if you did not chop it all. The lime leaves will come at the end.
- Now boil with the pot not fully tight (to allow evaporation) for 3 hours, mixing occasionally.
- In the last hour you can add the lime leaves and makes sure you stir more frequently, since the water evaporated mostly and it can stick.
- Serve with rice or noodles. It is incredibly flavorful:
