Indonesian · Main
Beef Rendang
- Advanced
- 4 h
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with aromatics blooming from the first bite, acid holding everything up to the light, on a slow, honest burn.
Ingredients
- 1kg beef chuck or shin, large cubes
- Paste: 10 shallots, 6 garlic, 5 red chilies, thumb galangal, thumb ginger, 3 lemongrass stalks
- 800ml coconut milk
- 4 makrut lime leaves, 1 turmeric leaf if the gods provide, 1 tbsp tamarind
- Kerisik: 80g toasted grated coconut, pounded to an oily paste, the secret weight
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
The words inside
The Fresh Aromatic Trio: Galangal, Lemongrass & Makrut Lime
Allergen screen
None found among the 14 screened.
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Blitz the paste; combine EVERYTHING cold in a wide pot: no browning, no sautéing; rendang starts as a swimming pool.
- Simmer uncovered on medium-low, stirring occasionally, 2 h, as it thickens from soup (gulai) to stew (kalio). 120 min
- Keep going: the coconut milk breaks, the oil returns, and the beef begins to FRY in its own sauce. Stir constantly now, 30–45 min. 45 min
- Kerisik in near the end. Done when the sauce is a dark, clinging paste and the kitchen smells like a Padang restaurant. Better tomorrow, immortal by day three.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Sautéing & the shallow fry 80 recipes
- Everything sits in a single layer with visible space between the pieces: nothing stacked, nothing touching, or the pan is too small for the quantity.
- The pieces move freely and keep moving, sliding across the pan rather than sticking and tearing when the pan is worked.
- Light even browning arrived at quickly: colour on most faces, not the deep crust of a sear and not grey.
- A thin film of fat with the food glossed by it: no pool left in the pan at the end, and nothing greasy on the fingers or the plate.
- Cooked through but still firm, having spent only a few minutes in the pan: anything that has gone soft has been in there too long.
Where it goes wrong Too much went in at once, the pan cooled, and the food released its water: what was meant to brown in three minutes stews for ten and comes out grey, slack and wet.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett)
- Also Right
- Gewürztraminer or off-dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Crisp lager or pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Agua fresca or iced jasmine tea
Sugar, cold, and low alcohol are the fire code: sweetness tames capsaicin while acid resets the palate; tannin would fan the flames.
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