In this recipe series, we bring you recipes by Julia Toon, culinary motivator and author of the book ‘Good Eating: A Taste of Qatar’. New recipes every week, straight from Jules of the Kitchen.
Rendang of Beef
An Indonesian beef curry in a renowned spicy, sweet, sticky sauce.
This has to be my most favourite Rendang of Beef recipe. Tender pieces of beef enveloped in what has to be the most flavoursome, unctuous, sticky sweet, chilli hot sauce ever. Please believe me when I say that the combination of all those wonderful sensual spices, combined with creamy coconut milk and left to infuse by a long slow bake is truly unbeatable. I found this recipe amongst my collection of Antipodean recipes from many moons ago, (its origins I am not too sure about). However, over the years, I have slightly tweaked the original recipe, and now I definitely recommend using ALL the homemade Rendang paste (not just 150 g) as it is SO DELICIOUS. You do get perhaps slightly more sauce than is traditionally correct, but oh who cares, as it’s fabulous on its own with mouthfuls of steamed, aromatic jasmine rice.
Serves 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours slow cook
Oven temperature: 150°C
Ingredients
Rendang Curry
800 g topside beef – cubed
3 tbsp coconut oil – or rapeseed oil
Pinch of sea salt
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
150 g rendang paste – homemade
600 ml coconut milk
1 ½ tbsp tamarind paste
6 kaffir lime leaves – fresh or dried, shredded or crushed
1 ½ tbsp palm sugar – often called jaggery
Sea salt and black pepper – to taste
Rendang Paste – makes approx 400 g
15 g shrimp paste
1 medium-sized red onion – skin removed and quartered
8 garlic cloves – papery skin removed, roughly chopped
12 long red Thai chillies – seeds removed and roughly chopped
1 lemongrass stem – white centre only, chopped
40 g galangal – peeled and chopped
40 g fresh ginger – peeled and chopped
1 lime – thin peel only
1 tsp dried turmeric powder
Instructions
Prepare Rendang curry paste
Take the shrimp paste and place it on top of a piece of tin foil, and wrap it up like a small parcel. Place this on a tray in a medium hot oven and roast for 10 minutes or so, until fragrant.
In an electric blender or food processor, add all the curry paste ingredients, and with the hot shrimp paste blend/process together until the mixture is smooth. Spoon into a jar and keep until required.
Make Rendang
Heat oil in a large ovenproof pan that has a well-fitting lid. When hot, add the curry paste and fry for 3 minutes (see image 2). You will notice a strong chilli fragrance being released. This is important and will play an important part in the final taste and aroma of the final dish.
Now add beef and coconut milk (see image 3). Mix well.
Finally add all remaining ingredients; tamarind, palm sugar and lime leaves. Gently stir together and give the sauce a quick seasoning taste check. If it needs a touch of salt and black pepper, add now (see image 4)
Cover with a lid and bring to a gentle simmer, now place in the oven and cook slowly for 2 hours or so until the meat is tender and the sauce rich and sticky.
Serve
Best enjoyed hot with plenty of freshly boiled jasmine Thai rice.
Jules Tips: I always use a food processor to make the rendang paste as it’s so easy. Simply cut the onions, chillies, ginger, garlic etc into manageable pieces, throw them into the food processor and blend together until smooth. In this recipe, it asks for 150 g of the homemade rendang curry paste. In all honesty, I have used all of the paste and it works well!
Contributed by: Julia Toon, Jules of the Kitchen
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