Indonesian Beef Rendang (Rendang Sapi)

Submitted by IndoFoody

"Rendang Sapi is one of the most popular dishes from Padang, West Sumatra. Padang is known by their delicious meals made from coconut milk. You can make it spicy or mild, depend how you like it.I like it because the taste is really strong and aromatic. However, it takes a bit longer time to cook so that the beef will be soft and tender. But it is definately worth to try =^_^="

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 17
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 500 g beef
• 946.36 ml coconut milk (made from 1 coconut if using freshly granted coconut)
• 2 bay leaves (Indonesian usually use Salam leaves)
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 3 cardamom pods, bruised
• 1 stalk lemongrass
• 2 fresh turmeric, leaves (optional)
• 4 cm cinnamon sticks
• 4 red chilies, sliced (you can add more if you wish)
• 2.46 ml salt
• 2.46 ml sugar or 2.46 ml brown sugar
• 8 shallots, peeled and sliced
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• 3 cm ginger
• 3 cm galangal, peeled and sliced (laos)
• 2.46 ml black peppercorns, crushed
• 2 cm turmeric

directions

1. Grind or blend shallot, garlic, ginger, galangal, peppercorn and turmeric into paste.
2. Cut the beef into small but thick slices square.
3. Put the beef, spice paste and all other ingredients into a wok and bring slowly to the boil, stirring constantly to prevent the coconut milk from separating. Cook over low heat, stirring from time to time, until the meat is very tender and all the sauce has evaporated.
4. Continue cooking the beef, which will fry in the oil that has come out from the coconut milk, until brown.
5. Serve with warm Basmati or Jasmine plain rice.

Reviews

[RotiJala]

Wonderful! Sounds very much like the Malaysian Rendang except that the Malaysian one has added dry-fried grated coconut towards the end of cooking time. I do wonder what the Salam leaves are, though. Tip for those trying it for the first time: If the Rendang gets dry before the beef is tender, just add a bit of water. (You can also reduce the amount of coconut milk if it's too 'strong' for you.)

 

[Satyne]

I won't give this a star rating since I don't think that would be fair on you. This smelled amazing when I first started cooking it, but eventually a lot of flavours just disappeared and while this was still nice, it wasn't great. I don't think there was enough meat for 4-6 people and I did put extra in. It was cooking for a long time on low heat as suggested and the sauce had hardly reduced, so you will see from my picture that mine was still very runny. Aside from the qty of meat written, I have to allow for my own technique and ingredients, some of which I had to go with the powdered version of (this may have impacted flavour). Overall, I'd like to try this again when I can get my hands on the ingredients as written, but with a lot more meat and see if it works out better next time. I'd appreciate it if step 3 could provide a bit more detail regarding approximate cooking times at that point.<br/><br/>All the best and I hope others are better at cooking Indonesian than I am :)<br/><br/>Edit: I froze what I had made and reheated, was a lot nicer the next day, so those of you with a lot of success will be in for a real treat.