Beef Rendang – Hairy Bikers Style

Beef Rendang – Hairy Bikers Style

• 2 lemongrass stalks
• 2 red onions, quartered
• 4 garlic cloves
• Thumb sized piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp galangal paste
• 2 plump red chillies roughly chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 5 curry leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tin coconut milk
• 200ml water
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 kilo beef steak cut into bite sized chunks (stewing or braising)
• Big pinch of sea salt

Method:

Peel off the dry outer layers of each lemongrass stalk and slice the inner white part into 1cm pieces.  Place them into a food processor, add the onions, garlic, ginger, galangal and chillies and blend to make as fine a paste as possible.  You will need to push the mixture down a good few times to ensure everything gets a good blitz, word of caution, don’t breath in deeply when doing this as the fragrance will knock you for six!

Heat the vegetable oil in a large flameproof casserole dish and fry the onion paste gently for around 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add the cumin, coriander and turmeric, mix well and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Add the beef to the casserole dish and toss it with the onion paste and spices.  Cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly until the meat is lightly coloured all over.  Pour in the coconut milk, add the water, curry leaves, cinnamon stick, sugar, tamarind paste, soy sauce and salt.  Place a lid on the casserole dish and cook in a preheated over at 160 degrees for around 3 hours or until the meat is very tender, you will need to give a good stir on the hour and also just to check it isn’t drying out.  

By the end of the cooking process you should be left with a thick, rich sauce.

It is best to make the curry the day before you eat it as the flavours will enhance the dish even more.  If you are a spice fiend then add as much fresh chilli as you can take, I did find the two chillies (including the seeds) gave this quite a good kick of heat. 

  I served this with basmati rice, cucumber and mint raita, and a tomato, onion and coriander chutney with some poppadoms.

Whilst it may seem like a lot of ingredients most of the dry ingredients people will have in their store cupboard and any additional ingredients required shouldn’t work out too costly and will keep in the fridge for a while once opened.

We both loved this dish, perfect for the weekend and with enough leftover for another dish I will be making later in the week,, watch this space for an Italian dish with an Indian twist!

Recipe adapted from The Hairy Bikers – Great Curries

Beef Rendang

Beef Rendang

• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons tamarind paste
• 55g desiccated coconut, toasted in a dry pan (reserve 2 tablespoons for the spice paste)
• 2lbs (1 kilo) beef chuck or stewing beef, cubed into bite size pieces
• 2-3 tbsp water 

For the Spice Paste

• 2 onions roughly chopped
• 1 large jalapeno, seeded and roughly chopped
• 1 inch ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 2 tbsp toasted coconut (from above)
• 1 tbsp olive oil

For the Curry Sauce

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 ½ tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tsp soy sauce
• 1 400ml can of coconut milk

Method:-

Mix together the salt, sugar, tamarind paste and water in a large bowl.  Add the beef and toss to fully coat.  Add the toasted coconut (reserve 2 tbsp) and mix well.  Set aside.

Put all the spice paste ingredients into a food processor and blend until you get a smooth paste.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan over a medium heat.  Cook the meat, working in batches, until seared on all sides.  Transfer to a bowl.

Add the spice paste and the rest of the curry sauce ingredients and cook for a few minutes.  Add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer.  Return the beef to the pan, simmer for 10 minutes then place in a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees and cook for approx. 3 hours or until the meat begins to fall apart.  You will need stir every 30 minutes or so and also check that the curry doesn’t dry out completely. 

This is a lovely curry, perfect for a Saturday night.  If you prefer a bit more bite to your curry, add more chillies to the spice paste.