Indonesian Beef Rendang

Rendang, one of Indonesia's most celebrated dishes, is a slow-cooked, spicy meat dish originating from West Sumatra. Originally used as a means of preserving meat in Indonesia's tropical climate, the rendang technique slowly simmers cuts of meats in spiced coconut milk. This slow-cooking process is used to yield succulent, fork-tender meats with rich, caramelized flavors. Unlike braising, the rendang technique reduces the cooking liquid until the sauce is completely dry. At the Kamendalu Resort and Spa in Ubud, Bali, William Wongso shows Steve Jileba, corporate executive chef of Unilever Food Solutions, how to make a classic beef rendang. And this is the dishes that are favored by the poor, the wealthy, the kids, the old, and whoever in Indonesia. And can you do other stuff besides beef? So it's a basic cooking method. I make three dishes. First, beef curry, the light one. I add some stock. Second, brown curry, just before the rendang. And to keep going, blacken it, it becomes rendang. So in different cooking stages, it's different dishes. Different dishes. So this is how unique it is. And also in 2011, it was voted by CNN Go as the world's most favorite dishes, called Rendang Padang. Padang is the capital of Western Sumatra. But if you go to Western Sumatra, I've tasted more than 100 types of this dish. The principal difference is only the combination of spice inside. But the common sense of this dish is a caramelized beef curry. Everything has to look blackened. So the meat that I'm using, tenderloin, the local meat. The ratio of my ratio, I have one kilo of beef, one and a half liter of coconut cream. If I say there are 100 types, but this is among the most popular, the mix is with garlic, the basic, shallot. If you don't have this small shallot like this, you can use the type that Indian normally use. You want it's a little bit larger than this. And some clove. This is important, the red chili. And this is galangal. This is candlenut, not yet roasted. But always remember, this will be roasted anyway. So you're cooking that along? Yeah, because along. Getting that caramelization. And don't worry about the chili, because when the chili after four hours cooking, it tend to be peppery hot. It's not chili hot. And then, this is a basic. We ground, we make into spice paste. You cook, you cook slowly until you hydrate and make a paste. This kind of paste, you can, this is a ready made paste. The ratio is about one to 10. 100 gram to one kilo of meat. But if you ground this as a paste, you don't have to stir. At the end, it will be stir fried anyway. Just put the whole thing with the coconut milk. And then, tamarind. This is aromatic. Lemongrass. And this is not commonly, you can have or you don't have it. This is a leaf of turmeric. And this is a kaffir lime leaf. The rest is salt, pepper, you need or you don't need. Let's turn the fire. This is the coconut cream. I said this is the version when you use good quality meat. In the village, when they use some buffalo, some old cow, then they do reverse. They use the coconut milk first to tenderize the meat. Cook the meat first. To cook the meat with the spices, right? And then, this is the paste. Start mixing it in? So when you cook with the good meat, you have to half caramelize slowly this coconut milk, coconut cream, and the spice. Then you put the meat. So it depends on the cut of meat, really. So the more tender, less time in there, sure. But in the modern way, I'm not going to let you do it for nine hours, right? So I'm going to show you to do it with the modern way. Halfway, after you put the meat inside, you can put in the combi oven, 85 degree. 85 degree, well, two hours, two and a half hours, it depends. And you have to test. Then you finalize in the wok, batch by batch. So you get the color you want. So really, the mastering of the dish is really about the caramelization or color of the dish. So you said that the cream was from the, basically, the first press is just squeezed. The first press, without any water. Without any water. If you use the other type of non-Indonesian coconut cream, which is much lighter, you have to almost double. You cook the coconut paste, you reduce it, then you put. You see the color start changing because it start to caramelize. Yeah, also the smell is starting to change, too. You don't have a choice. You do the wok pan, then you just do the first caramelization, then you put in the oven. The best is the cast iron pot. So a heavier pot. And you were saying that you could do this with any, so there's other proteins you can use, vegetables. Oh, you can do, you can do. But if you do chicken, do the great-grandmother chicken. Don't do the spring chicken. All right, do the old chicken. The old chicken, yes. Because you want the time to cook. Yeah, and also the duck, also very good. They also do the fern for vegetarian. I can do this for the manioc. Anything you can do, you can do with this. It's a matter of the timing, how far you, it's the cooking time of the protein or vegetables. The most important, when you go vegetable, you have to caramelize until dark brown, then put the vegetable and finish slowly. You have to finish it real quick, right. For the family, oh, they said I love to put the red bean. I love to put potato, the marble potato. It's just to say, I have 10 children. I can't afford to buy meat, so just using red bean to replace it. Okay, now just put the meat. Normally put chunky meat, 50 gram. Just strain this blood, because it will give you additional sour taste. Okay, so I'm going to leave you alone. I'll come back three hours later. Some coffee? So how am I doing? We have a good time, we watch TV, we have the coffee, we sleep. Poor guy, this is how, can you imagine nine hours? That's a long time. Back in the village, what they do, this we use a better, you see, this is start to caramelize, but you have to be very careful because the sugar run like you see. When you caramelize, you see black, it's too late. Then it's going to get bitter. Yes, so before, slowly like this, the color will gradually change toward, but make sure for the modern kitchen, the transition period to tenderize, you put the whole thing in the oven. In the oven or something. In the oven for 85 degree, and then bring back to the wok or tilting pan, and then you caramelize the whole thing. Better to finish by brown curry because you cannot go back when you're already black. So you keep the brown curry, anytime you want to black caramelize, you take bite by bite, you do it. Okay. Yeah, it's a choice. You can do brown curry, you add some water stock, and you make curry also, brown light curry. So many ways to do with this dish. See this, this is separation, the oil, so the oil is roasting. The paste and the skim of the coconut cream. So I like how you said you could do it in sections, so you can really do a lighter curry, and then you want to finish to this. Exactly. Not yet salt, it's not salty enough. Little. No, there's enough, I mean, to me, there was enough salt in it. Okay. So because. So there's some salt in the paste, yeah. Yes, you need. A little bit on the end. And you can play also with this, with the minced beef, so you do it faster, and you can spread on the bread, you can do sandwich. So it's choice, but again, the key is to caramelize the curry. And that's caramelizing. Yeah. So. Well, it's a big change from where it started, the color. Yes. I mean, we started out with the coconut cream, a little spice, and now look how dark it is now. Yeah, from white to black. This is rendang padang, or Western Sumatra caramelized beef curry. You have to say caramelized beef curry when you tell everyone how to do it, because the caramelized, the point is very, very important. And Indonesian cannot eat this without rice. And you said pretty much all the food is eaten with rice. I mean, that's the carrier for all the flavors. And some people deliberately like to eat this with hand. And when you finish the meat, don't throw the paste. You can do some other cooking. You can stir fry, you can stir fry chicken. Or greens, you said, or potatoes, yeah, okay. You can cook with the potato, or you can put in the rice, you cook with the rice like a biryani rice. And it's very good. Very nice. Thank you, Steve. Thank you. Did I do okay? You make my life easier this afternoon. Oh, that's good. Thank you very much. I have so much relax today by doing rendang.