About this recipe
A very dark, very dry rendang associated with Perak and with its royal households. It is cooked far longer than the wetter rendangs of everyday cooking, until the coconut milk has gone entirely and what remains is beef coated in a near-black, almost crumbly paste of toasted coconut and spice. Kerisik — coconut toasted dark and pounded to an oily paste — is used heavily, and the seasoning runs sweeter than the Minangkabau rendang of West Sumatra taught elsewhere in this book, which is a related but distinctly different dish. Rendang tok is a festival food, cooked for Hari Raya and for weddings.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 6 servings
- Prep
- 35 minutes
- Cook
- 3 hours 30 minutes
- Total
- 245 minutes
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Spice
- Medium
Allergens Contains tree nuts (candlenuts) and coconut. Halal as written. Dairy-free and gluten-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
The kerisik
- 1 1/2 cups (120 g) unsweetened desiccated coconut, or freshly grated coconut
The rempah
- 15 dried red chillies, soaked in hot water 20 minutes and drained
- 12 shallots, roughly chopped
- 8 cloves garlic
- 2 in (5 cm) galangal, sliced
- 1 1/2 in (4 cm) fresh ginger, sliced
- 3 stalks lemongrass, tender lower third only, sliced
- 6 candlenuts (buah keras)
- 1 tbsp (6 g) ground coriander
- 1 tsp (2 g) ground fennel
- 1 tsp (2 g) ground cumin
The rendang
- 3 lb (1.4 kg) beef chuck or shin, cut into 1 1/2 in (4 cm) cubes
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) neutral oil
- 3 cups (700 ml) coconut milk
- 1 cup (240 ml) water
- 4 kaffir lime leaves, torn
- 1 turmeric leaf, shredded fine (optional)
- 3 tbsp (36 g) gula Melaka, chopped, or dark palm sugar
- 2 tbsp (30 ml) tamarind concentrate
- 2 tsp (12 g) salt, or to taste
To serve
- Steamed rice, or compressed rice cakes (nasi impit)
Equipment
- Heavy wide pot or kuali, at least 6 qt (5.7 L)
- Dry skillet for the kerisik
- Blender or food processor
- Mortar and pestle, for pounding the kerisik
- Sturdy wooden spoon
Method
- Make the kerisik: toast the desiccated coconut in the dry skillet over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, 10-15 minutes, until it is deep chocolate brown and smells strongly nutty. Watch it closely in the last few minutes.
- Pound the hot toasted coconut in the mortar, or blitz it in a small processor, until the oil releases and it clumps into a dark, damp paste. Set aside.
- Blend the drained dried chillies, shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger, sliced lemongrass, candlenuts, ground coriander, fennel and cumin to a smooth rempah, adding a splash of water if needed.
- Heat the oil in the wide pot over medium heat and fry the rempah 15-20 minutes, stirring often, until it darkens considerably and oil separates clearly at the edges. This long fry removes the raw taste and is not a step to shorten.
- Add the beef and turn it in the paste until every piece is coated. Cook 5 minutes.
- Pour in the coconut milk and water, add the torn kaffir lime leaves and the turmeric leaf if using, and bring to a gentle simmer. Do not boil hard or the coconut milk will split unpleasantly.
- Simmer uncovered 2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes and scraping the base, until the beef is tender and the liquid has reduced by more than half.
- Stir in the kerisik, gula Melaka, tamarind and salt. Continue cooking uncovered over low heat 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes more, stirring every 10 minutes and then almost constantly towards the end.
- The rendang is ready when there is NO pourable liquid left at all — only dark, oily, clinging paste on the meat, and the pot base stays clear for a moment when you draw the spoon across it.
- Taste and adjust the salt and sugar. Rest 10 minutes off the heat before serving with rice or nasi impit.
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Rendang Tok sits in the Malaysia chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Malaysia 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.