Passport & Plate - Beef Rendang Terlagi-lagi
Malaysia | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos
Ingredients
A (Sambal paste)
3 medium sized red onions, cut into quarters
6 garlic bulbs, peeled
2 lemongrass stalks, cut into ½ inch pieces
2 inches peeled ginger
1 inch peeled galangal
14 dried red chillies (preferably cayenne chillies from India), cut into pieces and soaked in hot water
¼ cup of water
B
700 grams beef tenderloin, thinly sliced into 1 inch size pieces
1/3 cup of kicap manis, a thick sweet Indonesian soy sauce
4 teaspoons brown sugar
½ cup of freshly grated coconut, dry roasted and then pounded with a mortar and pestle until it becomes a rich, dark brown oil paste
500 grams thick, coconut milk
2/3 cups of water
1 inch ball of tamarind pulp, mixed with ¼ cup of warm water
8 stalks of lemon grass, beaten and crushed
1 turmeric leaf, shredded into long strands
8 kaffir lime leaves, shredded in halves
4-6 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1-2 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons brown sugar
½ cup of vegetable oil (for frying the beef)
How to prepare this recipe
Prepare items A. Cut the tenderloin into thin bite size pieces (1inch and smaller) and marinate the pieces in kicap manis and the brown sugar. Mix well and set aside for an hour. Prepare items B. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and mix it until it forms a rich vermillion sambal paste. Try to make it as smooth as possible.
Dry roast the fresh grated coconut until it turns caramel brown. Let it cool and then pound it in a mortar and pestle until it forms a thick, brown paste. This is called kerisik.
Add the tablespoons of oil into a wok. Once it’s hot, add in ingredients A. Sauté for around 15 minutes until the sambal paste is darker in hue and oil rises to the top of the paste. Add the coconut milk, water and the aromatic herbs – kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass and turmeric leaves. Simmer until the leaves wilt and the lemon grass turn semi soft. Add in the turmeric juice, pound coconut paste (kerisik), salt and sugar to taste.
In another wok, add in the oil for frying. Switch it on high. Once it’s hot, fry the beef in batches. The beef slices do not need to be fried for long as the beef is already a tender cut. Just fry them until they caramelise and glisten. The oil will turn dark. Have no fear, it’s just the soy. Add all the fried beef into the first wok. Continue cooking until the sauce gets darker and coats the beef lovingly.
Once cooked, serve with rice cakes. The rendang also goes really well with plain cooked basmati or jasmine rice and butter pilaf rice.
The story behind this recipe
With each bite, let me transport you…
…to my home, to this yearly celebration of food, faith and family.
Two years ago, I was far away from home. I was in Chicago, a place that would soon be my new home. Family was too far away to drive to; phone calls were all I had. I was completely and utterly homesick. I missed my daughter, my parents, siblings. And the food. Eid al Fitr, a Muslim celebration after a month of fasting and abstinence was celebrated with new clothes and gloriously abundant food. I had to fight the homesickness. It was time to fight dying embers with massive, heartfelt fire.
So, I devised a plan to recreate the Malaysian celebration in the comforts of our humble little abode. I planned a spread that would include the tastes of home - chicken satay and spicy peanut sauce, chicken in spicy red gravy, vegetarian stir fried noodles, potato curry puffs, kuih ketayap which is a dessert made with pandan infused crepe, rolled and stuffed with sweet, palm sugared fresh grated coconut and kuih lapis, layered triangles of pink and white, made of coconut milk and rice flour.
At the heart of the spread was a dish that is my sister’s specialty. It is a dish that had such pull power, relatives would come back each year just to gobble it up with sheer abandon. This ridiculously delicious dish is called Beef Rendang Terlagi-lagi. This ‘made only during eid’ dish is a dry beef stew that is packed with the heady aromas of lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric leaves and a handful of dried chillies that make it a unique, mouth watering spicy concoction. Terlagi-lagi in Malay means to want more and more. The rendang without a sliver of doubt, lives up to that reputation.
