Beef Rendang

Blog / Beef Rendang

I love this Malaysian/Indonesian dish. I am from Hong Kong, so don’t shoot me for not knowing which country has a claim on this deliciousness. It is a dry curry type of dish, not left with a ton of sauce once cooked. The meat simply sucks up all the flavors!

Full disclosure. This dish has a strong flavor and not everyone in your family will like it. My husband and my oldest love it. My middle one not so much. The jury is still out for my youngest.

It looks like there are a lot of steps, but to be honest if you have a food processor at home, it’s a game changer. Get all the ingredients from a local herb/veggie store. If I manage to make this in Tel Aviv, so can you!

Beef Rendang

Preheat oven to 150C if using the oven. Alternatively you can cook directly on your stove top.

400ml coconut milk (or 100ml coconut cream with 300ml hot water)

4 kaffir fresh lime leaves

1 cinnamon stick

2-3 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp tamarind paste

2 tbsp soy sauce

ground pepper and salt

1kg beef for long cooking, cut into cubes

First brown the beef in vegetable oil and set them aside.

The curry paste

2 lemongrass stalks, use the inner white/light green part

2 onions

8 cloves of minced garlic

2 tbsp minced ginger

2 spicy chillies

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

This dish is all about the curry paste, and here is where you bust out your trusty food processor and grind all of these ingredients into a paste. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Stir-fry the curry paste in vegetables oil for a few minutes. Stand back and proudly admire the aroma of this paste that you make from scratch. Add the beef back to the pan and coat the beef in the curry paste. Stir gently.

Add everything else in the pan … coconut milk, lime leaves, cinnamon stick, brown sugar, tamarind paste, soy sauce, salt and pepper, stir and bring to a simmer.

Put the pan in the oven with a cover and check the liquid level every 45 minutes or so until the beef is soft and tender. It takes about 2 hours to 2 and 1/2 hours. Add more water if needed. The sauce is supposed to be very thick, not runny like a wet curry would be. Enjoy with fluffy rice.

Make a mess. One kitchen at a time.