About this recipe
Rendang is not a curry. It is a Minangkabau technique in which beef is simmered in coconut milk and spice paste for hours until the liquid has evaporated entirely and the meat fries in the oil and solids left behind, turning almost black. A wet, saucy version stopped partway is a real dish with its own name — kalio — but it is not rendang, and the difference is the whole point of the recipe.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 6 servings as part of a shared meal
- Prep
- 35 minutes
- Cook
- 3 hours 30 minutes
- Total
- 245 minutes
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Spice
- Hot
Allergens Contains beef and tree nuts (candlenuts). Gluten-free. Dairy-free.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
Bumbu (spice paste)
- 12 dried red chillies, soaked, plus 6 fresh red chillies
- 10 shallots
- 8 cloves garlic
- 2 in (5 cm) fresh galangal (lengkuas), sliced — not ginger
- 1 in (2.5 cm) fresh ginger, sliced
- 2 in (5 cm) fresh turmeric, sliced — not ground turmeric
- 6 candlenuts (kemiri)
- 1 tsp (2 g) ground coriander
- 1 tsp (6 g) salt
The braise
- 3 lb (1.4 kg) beef chuck or shin, cut into 2 in (5 cm) cubes
- 5 cups (1.2 L) coconut milk, from about 3 cans of full-fat coconut milk
- 3 stalks lemongrass, bruised and knotted
- 4 daun salam (Indonesian bay leaves) — not Mediterranean bay
- 4 makrut lime leaves, torn
- 1 turmeric leaf, knotted (optional but characteristic)
- 2 pieces asam kandis or 1 tbsp tamarind pulp
- 1 tbsp (15 g) palm sugar
- 2 tsp (12 g) salt, or to taste
Equipment
- Wide heavy pot or Dutch oven, at least 12 in (30 cm) across
- Blender or large mortar and pestle
- Wooden spatula
Method
- Blend the dried and fresh chillies, shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger, turmeric, candlenuts, ground coriander and salt to a smooth paste, adding a splash of the coconut milk if the blender needs help.
- Put the bumbu, coconut milk, lemongrass, daun salam, lime leaves, turmeric leaf, asam kandis, palm sugar and salt in the wide pot. Stir and bring slowly to a gentle simmer over medium heat, stirring often so the coconut milk does not catch.
- Add the beef. Return to a bare simmer and cook UNCOVERED, stirring every 15 minutes, for about 1 hour 30 minutes. The liquid will thin, then thicken, and the colour will move from pale yellow toward light brown. This stage is gulai.
- Continue simmering another 45–60 minutes, stirring more often as it thickens. The sauce becomes a thick, glossy, mid-brown gravy that coats the meat. This stage is kalio — if you stop here you have made kalio, not rendang.
- Lower the heat and keep cooking, now stirring almost constantly, 45–60 minutes more. The liquid will disappear, the coconut solids will separate and toast, and the oil will come out. The mixture goes from brown to very dark brown.
- Keep stirring and scraping the base for the final 15–20 minutes as the meat fries in its own oil and the solids turn dark and crumbly, clinging to the beef.
- Stop when the pot is essentially dry, the beef is deeply coloured and tender enough to break with a spoon, and the solids are dark and grainy rather than saucy.
- Discard the lemongrass, salam and turmeric leaf. Taste for salt. Rest 15 minutes before serving.
The Complete Edition
Rendang sits in the Indonesia chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Indonesia chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.