Beef Rendang

Been trying to learn Indonesian dishes for P so he wouldn't be too homesick for food. He's been subsisting mostly on fried chicken, KFC, Jollibee, McDonald's, Inasal, etc. He's tried them all. Most of my experiments have not been too successful though. Either the recipes were not good or I wasn't following it correctly or I did not have the right ingredients. Still, I keep on trying. My friend Karen got a Singaporean cookbook which had a lot of Indonesian and Malaysian dishes in it. I decided to try out the Beef Rendang although the recipe confused me a bit because it was not specific enough. I had to look up other recipes on the internet. So this is a combination of many recipes.

1/2 kilo beef brisket cut into cubes
1 cup grated coconut, lightly toasted
1 cup thick coconut milk
3 pieces dried tamarind, sliced thinly
Salt and pepper to taste
2 pieces kaffir lime leaves
1 piece turmeric leaf
1 piece salam leaf
1 cup cooking oil


Blend the following into a paste:
1 medium onion
6 pieces large garlic cloves
1 teaspoon minced ginger
a handful candlenuts (I used almonds as candlenuts were not available)
1 piece shallot


Add these to the blended paste:
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon chili paste
2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric poweder


Season beef cubes with salt and pepper and marinate for at least an hour.


Heat 1 cup cooking oil (in medium heat) in a large wok and fry the blended paste. Add the kaffir lime leaves, turmeric leaf and salam leaf and continue stirring until brown.


Add the sliced tamarind. Once the oil separates from the paste, add the marinated beef and cook in slow fire for 2 hours or until beef is tender. Stir once in a while and add a little water if the paste starts to dry up.


Add the grated coconut when the beef is almost tender and stir until well mixed. When the beef is tender, add the coconut milk. Mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once oil starts to float on top, it is ready.


Serve with steamed rice.


This time my experiment worked out well. P said it was good and I brought leftovers to work to have my friends taste it and they liked it too.