The short version: Great recipe!
The long version:
Although subtitled "authentic Chinese cooking", many of the recipes in "A Taste of Asia" seem to be Malaysian. All the better!
The beef rendang from this cookbook is one of the first few Thermomix recipes I've tried, having just received my Thermomix on Friday.
The recipe asked for 150g of green chillis. I bought a bag of chillis that looked ample from an Asian grocery, but found when I came to cook the rendang that it was only 75g. Nonetheless, these were small, very hot chillis, so I decided they would do. The recipe calls for the chillis to be de-seeded, which is the most time consuming part of the recipe (does anyone know a fast and easy way to do this?). I left a few chillis with seeds still in, since I was aware I only had half of the desired quantity, and seemed to get the right degree of spiciness (Rendang is supposed to be hot).
It had been a while since I had handled more than a chilli or two at once, so I was blase, removed the seeds with my fingers (that being faster than a knife), and didn't wear gloves. This was a big mistake! When I showered later, my hands stung as though I'd dipped them in boiling water.
The recipe involved about an hour's cooking plus about half an hour to prepare the chillis, so it made for a late dinner on a weeknight. When the bell rang at the end and I opened the Thermomix to take a look, I was at first worried: the rendang was a very light colour and the meat looked (at first) as though it had been mashed! But I left it sitting in the Thermoserver while I cooked the rice, and by the time the rice was done, it looked good. Still a light colour, but definitely not mashed.
The taste was great: the best home-cooked rendang I have made, by far. I will certainly be using this recipe again!
Incidentally, this was also the first time I steamed rice in my Thermomix. I noticed that the EDC book suggested rinsing the rice manually, then cooking for 14-16 minutes at speed 4, while the Indian cookbook suggested using the Thermomix on speed 5 to rinse it, then cooking for 20 minutes on speed 2.5, increasing to 4 if it bubbles over. I went with the Indian cookbook recipe, but reduced the time to 18 minutes, and was happy with the results.
