Beef Rendang

[Mama Fergie]

Beef Rendang - Serves 6

Ingredients

1 kg Gravy Beef
1 tbs KecapManis ( Indonesian thick sweet soy sauce)
3 Lemongrass stems (white part only) bruised.
4 kaffir Lime Leaves torn
1/2 tsp Tamarind Paste
1 400ml can Coconut Milk or Cream
1/2 cup water or stock
2cm piece Galangal crushed
1tsp Palm Sugar
30 g grated fresh coconut or desiccated coconut lightly dry roasted until colour changes slightly
Salt and Pepper

Peanut Oil

Spice Paste
6 Shallots or 2 Onions
4-6 Garlic Cloves
2cm piece of Ginger
2cm piece of Tumeric. If no fresh Tumeric use 1 tsp ground Tumeric
2tsp Dry Roasted Coriander Seeds ground
2tsp Cumin ground
 4-6 fresh Red Chillies or 6-8 Dry Red Chillies pre soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes . Amount of chillies according to required taste.

Method

Add oil to a large Frypan or pot and when hot add the beef in batches and sear beef  on all sides until golden and brown.
Remove beef to a bowl and stir through the Kecap Manis ensuring its well coated. Cover and set aside while preparing spice paste

Spice Paste

Add all ingredients to TM and blitz on speed 7 until it forms a paste. You may need to add a few drops of water after scraping down the bowl and blitz again until paste is desired consistency.

Add some more oil to the pan and when hot add the spice paste stirring frequently. Reduce heat and cook for a few minutes until the fragrance is released and the oil starts to separate. Then add the beef, lemongrass stems, kaffir lime leaves, tamarind, coconut milk or cream, stock or water, galangal and palm sugar. Bring to a simmer then cover and cook on stove top for around 2 hours until beef is very tender. You may need to add a little more liquid. The consistency of the sauce should be thick and clinging to the beef but not runny.
If using pressure cooker transfer everything into PC and cook for 35-45 minutes as per PC instructions. When pressure cooking is done I transfer everything back into the original pot and simmer uncovered to get the sauce evaporated and clinging to the beef.
Then blitz the dry roasted grated  coconut and stir through the beef and sauce.

Serve with steamed rice and veg. I serve with an Indonesian green bean dish

Optional

I also add half a bunch of chopped coriander leaves and stems when adding the beef and other ingredients. This is not part of the recipe that was given to me but I love coriander and feel it adds something to the dish.

members' comments

Hally - If you are cooking in the pc you do not need to add the stock/water. It provides too much liquid. I now have it simmering away to reduce the liquid. Taste, fantastic. Reduced down. Should reduce it more but I am loving the sauce. Great recipe MF, thank you.
Next time I will brown the meat in the pc & also the paste, will not add the extra liquid & I think it can all be done in the pc. Very easy recipe to do. We had the left overs in pies.

kt2 - it was just beautiful! Thanks MF. It's amazing how much the taste changed at the end when I added the dry roasted coconut, it really softened the chilli taste and gave the flavour more depth. Will definitely be making again.

Greyhoundmum -  just had the beef rendang that I cooked last night. It had a nice flavor but I didn't really like the cut of meat (blade steak).

Yvette - We had it last night using gravy beef and it was lovely.

MEP - I transferred to stove top and reduced. It took several hours though, plus I had to add some potato starch to thicken. Unfortunately, with the long reduction time, the meat became tough. With the benefit of hindsight, next time I will remove the meat first as recommended by MF and only add meat back in once sauce has thickened and reduced. Absolutely LOVED the flavour. Without a doubt the BEST curry I have made from scratch myself.

JulieO - we both loved it.  Has so much flavour. Next time I will double the recipe for the freezer. The only thing I would do next time is cook for 25 mins instead of 35.  I did cut my meat (blade steak) into quite large cubes but even still they were falling apart at the end so it looked a little sloppy. Not a big issue though. Thanks Mama.

natalia - it was yummy.  A little hot for our family though, next time I would only put 3- 4 chillis in it.  An extra tin of coconut cream helped to cool it down a little.  Thanks for posting this recipe.

jeninwa - This is a winner mama Fergie in our house.  Made the left overs into pies for a very quick and easy dinner.

floweryspring - Yum! I seared and cooked in my enameled dutch oven. Had to reduce with lid off extra 20 minutes to thicken up the sauce. I put in about 15 red Thai chillies as we like our rendang hot. We thought the colour and taste was more like Massaman curry.  We loved it and will be making it again!

Kimmyh - Wow, it's delicious. Thank you so much for sharing MF. Sent some home for mum who loved it too. Will be making regularly, it's sooo good. Thanks again.

AnnaBanana - Made this using thermie and pressure cooker. Did not have galangal so substituted ginger.  Did not add the extra water either. Next time I will cut the beef into larger chunks, as by the time the liquid was dry, the beef was a bit shredded, though it did not detract from the taste which was great. Thanks MF, definitely will be making again.

[Cornish Cream]

Thanks MF.Looks a superb recipe.
Just one question what could I substitute for  "gravy beef" as it's a cut of meat you can't get here in the UK.

[Mama Fergie]

Any type of stewing beef CC. Gravy beef is good as  it doesn't  dry out Ian's go stringy.  I have forgotten the  UK cuts of beef but will ask my mum as she will remember. 

[Jamberie]

Gravy beef is a cheaper cut of meat with visible sinew (?) Similar looking to osso bucco without the bone/marrow. I might use chuck steak as it is my favourite slow-cooking meat.

[Kimmyh]

Yummy MF. Thanks for sharing.

[kt2]

Thank you so much for this recipe MF!    It's on the menu for this weekend! Can i ask what pressure setting you use on the pc? 

[Mama Fergie]

I use high setting Katie. Yours is the same as mine so should be fine. The book that came with our machine is pretty poor don't you think?

[Jamberie]

Have you got the 6 in 1 by any chance?

[Mama Fergie]

kt2 and I have got the Breville equivalent jamberie although it doesn't have the deep frying option

[judydawn]

Thanks for posting the recipe MF, people have been hanging out for it 

[Jamberie]

Ah, ok...I had a question about the 6 in 1...I might ask it on the other thread

[cookie1]

Sounds good MF. I don't have a pressure cooker but that is no problem.

[Cornish Cream]

Thanks MF I'll use stewing beef

[Wonder]

Thanks MF. Rending is one of my favorite dishes so il give this a try.

[Frozzie]

Yum on the list thx mf 😁