Indonesian Cooking with Beef Rendang

Indonesian Cooking with Beef Rendang

I bought a wonderful piece of Charolais beef for braising yesterday. Cutting it into pieces I knew it had to cook long and slow and then would dissolve in the mouth. And now I´m sitting in a wonderful smelling living room.  The spices of cinnamon, lemongrass and ginger together with the toasted dessicated coconut let it feel festive, as if this recipe is for Christmas.

This is a traditional meal for festivities in Indonesia. It is called a curry, but has little to do with the Indian style curries. But I have eaten it in the Netherlands as well.

It is a great dish to serve to guests, because when everything is combined and in the oven, it is out of the way and you have time for your guests. And it is not a problem, if some arrive fashionably late, it can stay in the oven, until everybody sits at the table.

Beef Rendang after 2,5 hours in the oven

As a base I used the SortedFood recipe, I added carrots and parsnips to the mix and together with the homemade paste of onions, garlic, chillies, ginger, lemongrass and lime juice I added some premade Indonesian Rendang paste from an Asian supermarket.

recipe:
850 g Charolais beef for braising
2 onions
8 cloves of garlic
3 red chillies
5 cm root ginger
2 stalks of lemongrass
1 lime juiced
2 tbsp Rendang Paste
2 large carrots peeled and in slices
1 parsnip in 2 cm cubes
70 g dessicated coconut dry roasted in a pan until it smells sooo good
500 ml coconut milk
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp coconut oil

Use an ovenproof pan with a lid and preheat the oven 160 C

In a blender chuck in the rough cut onions, garlic, chilly, lemongrass, ginger pieces and lime juice and make a coarse paste.

Cut the beef into bite size pieces and heat up some coconut oil in the pan. Since you have to much beef for one pan, just brown it in 3 batches, so the meat can really get the needed heat and wont start to let water and cook. When you put it into the pan, keep you spatula away for at least 2 minutes, then turn it first.

When the 3 batches are brown, add some more coconut oil to the pan and fry off the paste with the ready made Redang paste for 2 minutes. Add half of the coconut milk and the veggies and get it cooking again, add the last coconut milk and the beef, give it a good stir and at last add the dessicated coconut. Bring it to a boil again and place it in the oven for 2 hours with the lid on. After one hour, give it a good stir. After 2 hours, take off the lid and keep it in the oven for 30 minutes longer.
Press a little lime juice on top before serving.

Boil some Basmati rice with salt, star anise and cinnamon stick and serve with the Beef Rendang.

served with Basmati Rice