Name: Beef Rendang
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 150 min
Ingredients: 5 tablespoons unsweetened desiccated coconut; 1 tablespoon coconut oil or vegetable oil; 100g/5 tablespoons Rendang curry paste, homemade or shop bought. (If you are using a shop bought paste, check suggested quantities); 1kg braising beef, chopped into 2.5cm/1 inch cubes; 1 x 400ml tin coconut milk; 600ml beef stock/broth; 7 kaffir lime leaves, ideally fresh or frozen, or dried; 1 cinnamon stick; 1 star anise; 1 stick lemongrass, trimmed and crushed; 20g/1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon palm sugar; 2 teaspoons tamarind paste; ¾ teaspoon fine salt; ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

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Beef Rendang is a stunningly delicious internationally famous, classic, spicy, slow cooked Indonesian/Malaysian curry beloved well beyond Asia. With complex, deep flavours developed through long, slow cooking, layers of spices, aromatics and toasted coconut, this intensely aromatic curry is rich and creamy and packs a huge flavour punch.

Rendang Curry Paste

Like most Indonesian curries, this curry is made using a paste. Unsurprisingly, if you make a good homemade curry paste, your Rendang will be much more flavourful than using a shop bought. The paste is easy to make but does require a range of ingredients, not all of which are common place in the the supermarket. However, I urge you to make it if at all possible! For recipe, see here.

Top tip – make a big batch and freeze it in portions ready to use. You will definitely want to make this again!

If you are buying the paste, try and get it from an Asian supermarket – their pastes are generally far superior to those found in your standard British supermarkets.

How to make Beef Rendang

Collect all your ingredients together:

unsweetened desiccated coconut
coconut oil or vegetable oil
Rendang curry paste, homemade or shop bought
braising beef, chopped into 2.5cm/1 inch cubes
coconut milk
beef stock/broth
kaffir lime leaves
cinnamon stick
star anise
lemongrass, trimmed and crushed
palm sugar
tamarind paste
fine salt
ground cloves

How to make this incredible curry:

Brown the coconut: tip the desiccated coconut into your cooking pan, set over a moderate heat, and cook for 2 – 3 minutes until golden brown, stirring. Keep a close eye on it as it will burn very quickly. Take out of the pan and transfer to a bowl – this prevents it cooking further.
Cook the curry paste: put your rending curry paste into your cooking pan with the coconut oil and cook over a moderate heat, stirring, for 2 minutes until fragrant.
Cook the beef: add the beef and stir well to mix. Cook for 3 minutes stirring.
Add the remaining ingredients to the curry paste and the beef: coconut milk, beef stock, lime leaves, toasted coconut, cinnamon stick, star anise, crushed lemongrass stalk, palm sugar, tamarind paste, salt and ground cloves. Stir well to mix and bring to a gentle simmer.
Cook, lid on, over a very low heat for 1 hour, stirring from time to time.
Continue to cook, with the lid slightly ajar, over a very low heat for a further hour, stirring from time to time.
After 2 hours, the beef should be very tender and the sauce reduced. However, you will most probably need to reduce the sauce further. Take off the lid and turn the heat up to moderately hot and cook for 20 – 30 minutes until the sauce has reduced, darkened, and is coating the beef.
Remove the cinnamon stick, bashed lemongrass and the star anise. Serve the Rendang with plain or coconut rice.

NB A Rendang curry is a ‘dry curry’. This means that the sauce is reduced to the point that it coats the beef more like a paste. Full confession – this sauce is so luscious we prefer it a little looser than how it is supposed to be served – we just love that sauce soaking through my rice. An authentic Rendang will look drier than mine – to achieve this, simply cook it for a little longer without the lid on, until you have the consistency you are looking for.

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Beef Rendang

Course Dinner, light lunch, main meal, Supper

Cuisine Indonesian, Malaysian

Keyword beef, curry, rendang

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 2 hours 30 minutes

Servings 4

Author Susan

Ingredients

5 tablespoons unsweetened desiccated coconut
1 tablespoon coconut oil or vegetable oil
100g/5 tablespoons Rendang curry paste, homemade or shop bought. (If you are using a shop bought paste, check suggested quantities)
1kg braising beef, chopped into 2.5cm/1 inch cubes
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
600ml beef stock/broth
7 kaffir lime leaves, ideally fresh or frozen, or dried
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 stick lemongrass, trimmed and crushed
20g/1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon palm sugar
2 teaspoons tamarind paste
¾ teaspoon fine salt
¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Instructions

Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
Brown the coconut: tip the desiccated coconut into your cooking pan, set over a moderate heat, and cook for 2 – 3 minutes until golden brown, stirring. Keep a close eye on it as it will burn very quickly. Take out of the pan and transfer to a bowl – this prevents it cooking further.
Cook the curry paste: put your rending curry paste into your cooking pan with the coconut oil and cook over a moderate heat, stirring, for 2 minutes until fragrant.
Cook the beef: add the beef and stir well to mix. Cook for 3 minutes stirring.
Add the remaining ingredients to the curry paste and the beef: coconut milk, beef stock, lime leaves, toasted coconut, cinnamon stick, star anise, crushed lemongrass stalk, palm sugar, tamarind paste, salt and ground cloves. Stir well to mix and bring to a gentle simmer.
Cook, lid on, over a very low heat for 1 hour, stirring from time to time.
Continue to cook, with the lid slightly ajar, over a very low heat for a further hour, stirring from time to time.
After 2 hours, the beef should be very tender and the sauce reduced. However, you will most probably need to reduce the sauce further. Take off the lid and turn the heat up to moderately hot and cook for 20 – 30 minutes until the sauce has reduced, darkened, and is coating the beef.
Remove the cinnamon stick, bashed lemongrass and the star anise. Serve the Rendang with plain or coconut rice.

Recipe Notes

Equipment:

kitchen scales and measuring spoons
chopping board and knife
heavy based cast iron pan with lid

Consistency of the curry

A Rendang curry is a ‘dry curry’. This means that the sauce is reduced to the point that it coats the beef more like a paste. Full confession – this sauce is so luscious we prefer it a little looser than how it is supposed to be served – we just love that sauce soaking through my rice. An authentic Rendang will look drier than mine – to achieve this, simply cook it for a little longer without the lid on, until you have the consistency you are looking for.