Sunday, March 14, 2010

Beef Rendang Recipe

 Posting for Kirsten, but feel free to give this a bash if you like slightly spicy curry type foods.  It would work equally well with lamb.  I wish I could remember where I got this recipe, but I've had it for 4 or more years , lifted from somewhere off the internet- an Australian chef - so all credit to the unknown chef. (I think that now covers all the legal aspects of plagarism, since I can't afford to get tied up in litigation this week )

I usually double or triple this recipe because it freezes really well which saves you having to cook dinner another night (or two) You can microwave or oven re-heat this and it still tastes delicious.

You need:
1 kg of gravy beef or casserole beef (cheap cuts of beef are good – I use blade bolar roast when I can get it on special)
1 x 400ml can of coconut milk (slightly more or less won't make a massive difference)
1 onion (Medium to Large )
3 cloves of garlic
2 or 3 teaspoons of fresh ginger (stuff from a jar is fine if you can’t find fresh)
1 stalk of lemon grass ( I omit this because it does weird things to my lips - yeah I know I'm a circus freak  )
1 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
2 teaspoons of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of salt
1 or 2 teaspoons of chilli powder or sambal olek ( I personally use chilli powder or crushed dried chilli's)

Method
Cut your meat into one inch cubes . Brown your meat and toss it in the slow cooker. Toss everything else , except  the lemon grass into a blender and blatt for 30 seconds or so. Or you can just mix it all together in a jug if you want. I throw mine in the frypan I just used for the browning of the meat and mix it all that way. Pour blender/frypan/jug contents into your slow cooker and give the lemon grass a few whacks with a heavy object and toss into the slow cooker as well.

Stir, making sure all meat is well coated in sauce. Cook on high in the slow cooker for about 4 hours. The sauce will become darker as it cooks. After four hours give it a stir, and turn down to low and cook for another 2 hours.

Serve with Jasmine rice. Yum!

Confession:  I can't cook rice to save myself. Mr. P does this for me. He uses a weird method involving washing the rice in cold water  first, chanting at the full moon, praying to the rice gods and  giving the rice a bath in boiling water in the microwave for 4 minutes before stirring it viciously with a fork and putting it back in the microwave  to torture it some more. It's all greek to me. I just know the rice turns out perfectly every time.

Disclaimer- Everyone’s slow cooker is different , so you may need to adjust your cooking times. If you double this recipe add at least another two hours to the cooking time at the end. True rendang is apparently supposed to be dry, in the slow cooker it will have a gravy which is the way I like it.

More Disclaimers: Don't set your kitchen on fire while cooking like SAJ did recently.

And  as I finished this post, I  thought "I should have done a tutorial with pretty pictures" Bummer. Too late now.

11 comments:

Kirsten's Cooking said...

Thank you so much for posting this! I wish I knew how to rectify the fact that I am a "do-not reply" person...my husband and I are going to work on modernizing my blog a little bit in the next few days. A friend recommended downloading microsoft office live writer. I can't wait to try this- When I do, I'll take pictures and send you a link!

Deb said...

Fantastic recipe, I will be trying this out, thats for sure. Nothing better than a nice easy recipe that you can easily double the recipe for freezing and can cook in the slow cooker without having to worry.
Thanks heaps for sharing it.
Deb

Marg said...

Sounds great, but I don't have a slow cooker!! Have you cooked it without a slow cooker?

Shay said...

I've never done it in a casserole dish Marg, but I'm sure you could. You'd probably need slightly more liquid though. I'd add a third again of the coconut milk and do it in the oven at 180C for two hours then check it, checking every 30-60 minutes during this time to make sure it isnt drying out too much. Add more liquid if it is.

If you give it a go let me know how you went with the alternative method.

Unknown said...

I don't know why but I end up finding crazy Aussies when I blog. And here I am, having read through your long rant blog and loved it.
I don't do much cooking in that sense of reading your recipe, but it does look good.
Here in Canada, we love butter tarts...it's the biggest recipe we talk about.
Goes well with any casserole.
you write really well, I'll be back. I have coffee each morning and visit different blogs. You are quite right, we get to know each other here in blogland.

Lisa said...

My sister and I have both noticed that- it's a pain to take photos while you're cooking; makes it more of a chore than fun! But it is nice to see pretty pictures, I don't buy cookbooks that don't have them.
Thanks for posting a recipe, since we have to eat too.... not just quilt!

Shay said...

Kristen, Cant wait to see your pictures.

Deb, I love easy. I'm the queen of easy. You and I sound like sisters.

Nanci , thanks for visiting. I'm off to google butter tarts. (They'll probably have some weird funky ingredient I can't get in Australia ) Then I'm coming over to your blog for a sticky.

Lisa, I havent been doing any quilting lately. But yesterday I cut some material ...I feel so much better and I'm excited about my latest project.

TheLab said...

Mmmmmm... butter tarts look good. I googled them, too!

This recipe looks excellent! I told my husband about it and he stopped me at the word "beef" - saying, "Count me in!" Next grocery trip, in two weeks - I'll be making this!

If I'm feeling motivated, MAYBE I'll take photos ;)

Jenny said...

Again...thanks for the chuckle. I can cook pretty good rice but perhaps I should invoke the rice gods just to make sure it is as good as possible!

Shay said...

I'm doing butter tarts this weekend...(thanks Nanci - I need another few pounds on my not so slender frame- but once I googled there was no way I wasnt putting that on my baking list)

Maybe we should have a butter tart bake off?

Kirsten's Cooking said...

We loved the curry! Next time I really want to try chicken - loved the richness, the combination of flavors, etc!
Thank you so much for sharing-
My husband just showed me how to use a hyperlink, but I don't know how to do it while on your comment page? I'm sorry...
If you want to, take a trip over and check it out- the photo quality isn't great, but it sure was yummy!