Passport & Plate - Rendang
Indonesia | Sunday, February 9, 2014 | 5 photos
Ingredients
1,5kg beef (you can take less, of course, but the dish is really time-consuming and delicious, so it’s worth making more);
400g shallots (or just common onions);
80g garlic;
400ml coconut milk (clue ingredient, cannot be replaced);
1 old/2 young coconuts (or 200g desiccated coconut flakes);
40g fresh ginger;
40g fresh galangal (could be replaced by 40 more grams of ginger);
3 lemongrass stalks;
10 kaffir lime leaves;
1.5tsp coriander;
1tsp turmeric powder;
35g palm sugar (or common brown sugar);
1 tsp cardamom seeds;
6 stars Chinese (star) anise;
6 pieces cloves;
1 cinnamon stick;
3-4 tbsp sunflower oil (plus oil for deep frying);
15-20 small chilli peppers/ 1-2 tbsp. of dry chilli (can be less, depending on your individual taste);
1 tbsp tamarind paste.
How to prepare this recipeFirst prepare the ingredients:
1. Cut the meat into about 3 cm cubes.
2. Peel galangal and cut it into slices. Then chop the white part of lemongrass stalks into rough pieces. Take the lime leaves and cut out the rough central vein. Put all of the above into a separate bowl.
3. Place the rest of the ingredients (onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, coriander, chilli peppers, anise stars, cardamom, and cloves) into the blender and turn them into paste (use a grater if you don't have a blender).
4. Add some hot water to tamarind paste and stir it thoroughly.
Now we’re ready for cooking:
1. Fry the pieces of meat in deep fat until they have lovely brown colour.
2. Quickly fry pieces of lemongrass, galangal and lime leaves so that not to burn them.
3. Add the paste and fry for 5-7 minutes to make the whole thing drier.
4. Add coconut milk, sugar and tamarind and let it stew for 5 minutes.
5. After that add the meat and let it simmer under the lid.
The duration of stewing varies in different recipes, but, as I came to know, the original Minangkabau rendang is the one that requires care and patience. It has to be stewed over low heat for no less than 3-4 hours. This will make the beef tender and let both the moisture to evaporate and the meat to absorb the condiments. This is what makes the taste of rendang so rich.
6. Grind the coconut meat in the blender or use a grater.
After that, toast the flakes on hot dry pan until they become brown .
7. After the meat has stewed for 3-4 hours under the lid, it should still have quite a lot of liquid in it. So we add our fresh-made coconut flakes into it and allow it to simmer in the pan without the lid, this time stirring the dish from time to time, until almost all the liquid is gone and our rendang is almost dry. At this stage, the rendang may be considered ready. But don't be in a hurry to eat it: rendang will taste even better the next day.
Have a nice meal!
The story behind this recipeUsually, when I go travelling, I try to arrange it in a way which would allow me to know closer the life of local people. When I decided to go to Asia, my first idea was to go there as a volunteer. My choice fell on Indonesia and I applied for participation in the project where young people had to teach English to orphan children in the city of Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Honestly speaking, I chose that particular project because of the nature of work itself, not because I knew at least something about the cultural peculiarities of the region. But the latter wasn’t going to frustrate me either. Padang happened to be the capital of the Minangkabau people, totally unique in their way of uniting traditional matrilineal culture (where daughters inherit property from their mothers) with Islam. It also happened to be an extremely important city for Indonesian culinary tradition (many cities in South-East Asia have Padang restaurants).
The organizers of the project wanted their foreign trainees to live as close to the locals as possible so, basically, not only did they work on the project itself, but they also invited trainees to live with their families. I also received an invitation to live with the family of a nice girl called Novia.
The first person I got acquainted with in Novia’s family was my future host Mom. My host Mom was a confident woman of strong will, even though a devoted Muslim. And she was the one who taught me to cook rendang. First, she treated me with her delicious, home-made rendang. Then I asked her to teach me how to make it and she was eager to help, demonstrating the common friendliness of Asian people, which I came to appreciate a lot during the stay. As for me, I hurried to write down the stages of the dish preparation (while watching and participating) so that to be able to keep the recipe and try to cook the dish for my family and friends at home.
