Beef Rendang

 We're apparently going through a bit of a beef phase? This was from an instagram reel from @ourlovestory (link here). I should note that the comments all said that this was not an authentic rendang, which TBH I have neither the expertise nor background to judge. What I can judge was the flavours which were ridiculously good. I did modify the recipe based on what I had at home and the general principle that I dislike being told what to do. Major differences from the recipe are less saturated oil and less saturated fat by subbing some of the coconut oil with cooking oil and subbing coconut cream with coconut milk. 

Ingredients

• 1-1.5kg beef, I used högrev, cut into 1.5" chunks 
• 4-5 medium onions roughly chopped
• 2-3" ginger chunk, peeled
• 8-9 fat garlic cloves
• 1" galangal chunk, peeled (I didn't have this and didn't use it)
• 3-4 chunks lemongrass, smashed a bit 
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil + 3 Tbsp normal oil
• 1.5 Tsp Cinnamon powder
• 1 Tsp Turmeric powder
• 1.5 Tsp Coriander powder
• 1 Tsp Curry powder (I didn't have this and didn't use it)
• 5-6 frozen kafir lime leaves 
• 1 cube Knorr chicken powder
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 3-4 Tbsp ICA Asia red curry paste 
• 1-2 star anise 
• 1-2 Tsp palm or regular sugar
• 3/4 cup fresh or dessicated coconut 
• 4-5 potatoes, cut chunkily 
• 1 can coconut milk 

Method

1. Start by pulsing the onions, ginger, garlic and galangal until semi finely chopped.
2. Heat the oils in a large pan and fry off the mixture. I added kafir lime leaves at this stage as well as salt and knorr chicken stock block once it was a bit dry to draw out more moisture. Once the it was nicely dry and oily, I added the powder spices and once they had have fried off, add the red curry paste and wait until it is fried off.
3. Once the "masala"(?) does not smell raw (and give it time), add the meat and fry until it gets a bit of a surface (5-10 minutes). Add the lemon grass too.
4. Add the can of tomatoes and 500mls water and a splash of baking soda (to negate the acid from the tomato). Add the star anise now as well. Get it to a boil and then lower to a hard simmer and then cover and leave for 35 minutes. 
5. In a pan, roast the coconut to a dark crunchy brown, almost black colour. Once it cools down, crush it to a coarse powder with mortar and pestle. 
6. At this stage I added in the ground coconut, coconut milk and potatoes and just let it cook for another maybe 1.5-2 hrs, until the meat was very tender, the curry was thick and oil had separated.
7. Adjusted salt and seasonings and added more water to make it more curry-like at the end and ate over boiled jasmine rice.