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. 

Selamat Hari Raya and a tale of Beef Rendang

It's Hari Raya. The time of the year when one eats all the goodies of the season in the form of nasi himpit, lemang, kuah kacang, kueh, and of course rendang. 

There are all sorts of rendang, but I'm not going to get into that today. What I am going to get into is that a week ago I realised I might actually miss out on all these goodies especially the rendang. Now, I don't celebrate Hari Raya, but going without rendang during the season was just impossible to deal with. So I decided to make my own. 

This is not my first attempt at rendang and as I do love a good Beef Rendang, I've tried to make it before but not quite so successfully. It's quite an effort to get the flavour and tenderness of the meat right. 

Armed with research from here and here, I made what I think is the best rendang I've ever made, ever. It had a gorgeous flavour and above all, the meat is fork-tender. Both use similar ingredients with the exception of the quantity called for and two or three additional spices.  

There were a few stressful moments while making this dish though.

First, I panicked and kept checking on it every five to ten minutes, when the recipe said to leave it well alone. (This is when I sent an S.O.S. to a friend on Facebook to find out if I should be looking at it cook every few minutes or not. I was told yes, a little bit too late!) Why? Because I finally DID leave it alone only to find at the end of the first hour that the bottom was starting to get burnt. Oh dear, oh dear.

So after a quick check on the tenderness of the meat, I turned on the oven and into it went the pot for its second hour of cooking. 

After the second hour was up, the contents of the pot went into a flat-bottomed wok for caramelising, 'frying' of the Spice Paste and reducing the gravy.

All in all, the rendang took about three and a half hours to make from beginning to end, including prep time. I was relieved and tired once it was done. The dish was delicious this evening with some boiled rice, but hopefully better tomorrow once it has a chance to have a good night's rest. This and a Butter Cake is what I'm taking over to Aunty Jaibun's later today.

Don't think I'd repeat this anytime soon. Maybe next year Raya is soon enough? 

BEEF RENDANG

Adapted from Not Quite Nigella and Dentist Chef

1.2kg Beef Brisket, cubed

2 teaspoons Salt

4 teaspoons Sugar

3 teaspoons Tamarind Paste

80g *Kerisik

Spice Paste (to be blended)

4 medium red Onions

6 fresh Red Chillies, de-seeded

28 dried Red Chillies, soaked in hot water and drained

2 thumb-sized pieces Ginger

1/2 thumb-sized piece Galangal

6 cloves Garlic 

Other ingredients

2 teaspoons Turmeric Powder

6 Kaffir Lime Leaves

4 stalks Lemongrass, bruised

4 slices Galangal

5 tablespoons Palm Sugar

2 teaspoons Salt

1/2 teaspoon White Pepper

4 tablespoons Oil

1 litre Coconut Milk, divided

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

In a blender, blend all the ingredients for the Spice Paste. If needed, add a little water to get the blender going. Blend until you get a fine paste. Set aside. 

Heat a large pot over medium heat and add Oil. Then add the Spice Paste. Fry the Spice Paste for about 1 minute and then add all the other ingredients into the pot. Cook for about 3 minutes, then add 750ml of the Coconut Milk. Add the Beef and stir through until the meat is well-coated. 

Cover the pot and cook on very low heat for 1 hour. Add in the remaining Coconut Milk and adjust the seasoning. I then put the pot into a 170 Celsius oven to cook for a further hour or until meat is tender.

After the second hour of cooking. Remove the pot from the oven and transfer everything in it to a flat-bottomed wok. Turn the heat on to low and start stirring the rendang every 5 - 10 minutes to prevent any sticking. Keep stirring until the gravy reduces and changes into a darker, more chocolate colour. The rendang is done once the gravy dries up leaving the meat with a caramelised coating. Cover and cool in the wok. Before eating, warm it up a little and serve with hot boiled rice.

*Kerisik - Make your own kerisik by toasting about 80g of dessicated coconut in a dry wok until it is aromatic, brown and well-toasted. Transfer to a pestle and mortar. Pound the crisp coconut lightly until you get a semi-fine powder. 

Notes

• This is my first time cooking Beef Brisket. It is so far the best cut of beef I've used to make a rendang.
• I used my cast-iron Le Creuset pot for the first two hours of cooking. Next time I'd put the pot straight into the oven for the first two hours of cooking to prevent the rendang getting burnt.
• I would experiment with slightly less Coconut Milk next time. I used Ayam Brand Coconut Milk. 
• I didn't use the Dark Soya Sauce called for in Not Quite Nigella's recipe, as I wanted the dish to caramelise on its own. 

Now, just what do I do with all that Galangal and Kaffir Lime Leaves I had to buy?