Rendang Tok

31 July 2014 - Updated the photo.

So I said in the previous post that I wasn't going to attempt rendang again anytime soon, but I did. What was I going to do with all that Galangal and Kaffir Lime Leaves anyway? 

This time round I made a Rendang Tok. My version of it anyway, which is give-or-take some of the spices. I liked the look of Ummi's rendang, so that's the recipe I used with a little tweaking.

Some people liked this more than the previous version! Well well well. That's not too bad. Looks like my rendang cooking skills are not too shabby after all.

No nice photos unfortunately, because I was tired from all the prep and stirring towards the end. Also, while the Beef was cooking in the oven, I made some very quick, very delicious Pineapple Jam Biscuits. 

RENDANG TOK

Meat Marinade

800g- 1kg Beef Brisket, cubed

3 teaspoons Tamarind Paste

2 teaspoons Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Salt

Dry Spices (to dry roast and grind fine)

2 tablespoons Coriander

1 tablespoon Cumin

1 tablespoon Fennel

1 tablespoon Black Pepper

Wet Spice Paste (to blend)

20 dried Red Chillies, soaked in hot water and drained

1 teaspoon Turmeric Powder

4 medium Red Onions

4 cloves Garlic

1 thumb-sized piece Ginger

1/2 thumb-sized piece Galangal

3 stalks Lemongrass

Other ingredients

500ml thick Coconut Milk

70g Kerisik

6 Kaffir Lime Leaves

3 Star Anise

4 Cardamon pods

Palm Sugar, to taste

Salt, to taste

Oil

Meat Marinade

In a large bowl, mix the Salt, Sugar and Tamarind Paste together. Add in the Beef cubes and toss till well mixed. Set aside. 

Dry Spices

Dry roast the spices over medium heat till aromatic. Cool and then grind into a fine powder in a dry spice blender. Set aside.

Wet Spice Paste

Slice, cut or snip all the spices. Put all the ingredients into a blender. Add a little water to get the blender going and blend until you get a paste. Set aside. 

Cooking the rendang

Heat a large pot over medium heat and add Oil. Then add the Wet Spice Paste, Star Anise and Cardamon. Fry spices for a minute. Then add in the Dry Spices and Kaffir Lime Leaves. Fry a few minutes more until slightly aromatic. 

Add in the Beef and stir until the meat is well coated with the spices. Then stir in all of the Coconut Milk. (The Coconut Milk should just cover the meat) 

Cover the pot with its lid and place in a 160 - 170 Celsius oven for about 1 hour or until the meat is slightly tender.

Remove pot from the oven and then transfer the contents of the pot into a wide flat-bottomed wok. On low to medium heat, stir the gulai until the Coconut Milk starts evaporating little by little. This should take about 20 - 30 minutes. Just before the 20 - 30 minutes is up - when there's still liquid in the wok - add in the Palm Sugar and Salt to taste. 

Lastly, add in the Kerisik. The mixture will suddenly start thickening. Keep stirring until the liquid is evaporated and the Oil starts floating to the top and sides of the rendang. 

Switch off the fire, cover the wok with its lid and let it sit on a cooler part of the stove until it comes to room temperature. Before eating, warm the rendang up a little and serve with hot boiled rice or nasi himpit or lemang.    

Notes

• I used my trusty cast-iron Le Creuset pot for the first part of the stove and oven cooking. It helped make the meat nice and tender. I then switched to a wide flat-bottomed wok.
• You can use just one pot for the whole cooking process, but then you have to stir for hours until everything comes together. I prefer to forget the rendang for at least an hour, so into the oven it goes. I'm just a bit lazy like that. Also nothing stuck to my pot or wok, which made washing up a breeze.  
• I would use slightly less Kerisik the next time, as I felt 70g was a little bit too much.