Learn Real-Life English: Cooking “The Best Dish in the World” 🌎🥘 Beef Rendang | Comprehensible Input

Hey guys, it's your English speaking friend Kyle. And today we're going to continue improving our English with comprehensible input while I cook what has been called the best dish in the whole world. So first of all, what is comprehensible input? Comprehensible input is when a native speaker, like me, speaks slowly and clearly so that you can understand. Guys, today I'm cooking a dish that is very well known in two countries, Indonesia and Malaysia, okay? And the dish is called beef rendang. And I cannot wait to try it. It has been literally called the greatest dish in the world by reputable sources such as CNN. So we're going to get going. Before we start cooking this incredible dish, I want to show you guys the Christmas present that my beautiful wife got for me. Because every chef needs an apron. This is called an apron. And an apron is something that chefs use so they don't get really dirty when they cook. Chef Kyle. All right guys, so this is my apron that my lovely wife bought me for Christmas. One of the coolest Christmas gifts I've ever gotten. I'm very grateful. And I can put my microphone right here. Perfect. Now let's cook some beef rendang. Look at all these ingredients, guys. Look at all these. And we have a lot of ingredients that have never been on the channel before, such as, do you know what this is, wife? Lemongrass. I've never cooked with lemongrass. This is called tamarind, but tamarindo for our Spanish speaking friends, popular in Mexican food. And I'm lucky we have a lot of Mexican immigrants around here because otherwise I would not have been able to find them. Kaffir lime leaves. Never cooked with these. And more. We'll get into all that. So guys, first we need to make the spice blend for this curry because that's what beef rendang is. It's a curry, okay? So we need to get all the things together in this. Something else I bought recently. This is called a food processor. And I've needed one of these for a long time. So let's get going on this spice paste, which will be the first thing that we start. All right guys, so the first thing that we are going to put into our food processor to make our spice paste. Six, what do you call these, wife? What kind of garlic? Cloves. Six cloves of garlic. And then these guys are another thing we haven't seen on the channel. Do you know what these are, baby? I know, I can't remember. These are basically onions, but they're a very sweet onion called a shallot, okay? And normally we would use six of these. Shallots is what the recipe calls for, but these are huge. So I'm using three. Shallots are not normally this big. I think maybe I should have bought a bigger food processor. And guys, I'm not doing anything fancy with the cutting. Just cut it up because this is going to cut it up even more. Now we need our peppers, okay? And here I've got the peppers. They've been what you call rehydrating. These were dry peppers. I put them in hot water like a half hour ago. And what these actually are is guajillo chilies. And once again, I'm grateful that we have so many Mexican people around here because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to find a lot of these. Now they wouldn't be using these most likely in Indonesia or Malaysia. They might be using a bird's eye chili or a Thai chili, but everybody says that this is a good substitute that you can find here in the U.S. So I'm using dried guajillo chilies. And I took the seeds out and soaked them in this water here. Now we will put these into our food processor. And I'm going to keep this water for when we need some liquid in a little bit. There's more things going in, guys, but I'm going to blend it down a little bit to make some space. Okay, we'll add a little bit more of that liquid. All right, let's see if we could fit the rest of our ingredients in here now. It already smells flavorful. All right, so we'll go ahead and put our spices in here now. We got one teaspoon of ground coriander, and we need more coriander. Perfect. One teaspoon of salt. Half a teaspoon of ground cumin. All right, now we need two inches of fresh ginger. And guys, this is kind of a way you can measure an inch. On me anyway, this is about an inch. On my wife, it's probably like a half inch. So she would have to do four. Ginger. And guys, this is fresh turmeric. We always use powdered turmeric. I've never used fresh, so let's see. And it says to peel it. All right. And if you miss a little bit, guys, it doesn't have to be perfect because nothing is perfect except my wife. So guys, it's interesting because all of you guys that cook with these kind of spices know that turmeric is a spice that leaves its color everywhere. Well, it's leaving its color on my my knife and my fingers too. I didn't know that fresh turmeric would do that. All right, now one note here, guys. There is another root that is similar to ginger and turmeric called galangal. Guys, me and my lovely camera wife drove around all day looking for it. It is nowhere, anywhere near me. So I'm making this recipe without that. For those of you guys who can't find it either, you can make it like this and it will be just fine. And if you can find it, it will be even more authentic. But unfortunately, there's not galangal anywhere near me. So lemongrass. Now there's, touch that baby, there's like a hard outer part to this that we don't want. It's like corn. So you peel the outer layers off. Smells sweet and citrusy. Lemongrass. And it makes sense that it's called lemongrass because it smells like lemon. You want to smell? I could see in my wife's eyes, guys, she was thinking, does it really smell like lemon? Smells very good. And everybody watching, this is one of the reasons why I decided to make this cookbook. Because me and my wife have had so much fun doing this that I really want to share this experience with everybody because guys, baby, how much fun is it to try these new recipes? We were just talking the other day, guys. I'm going to cut this up but talk to you as I do it. We were just talking about how we haven't went out to fancy dinners in a long time and spent a bunch of money. We used to go on dates like that, guys. But now, what is our date, baby? We cook these recipes at home. We try new things together. We're having an adventure and we're working together. So that's why my idea, guys, with this cookbook is you do it with someone you love. You share new experiences with somebody you care about and you learn about the world together. And believe me, it's hard to cut this, guys. Believe me, it will make you a much better cook as it has done to me. And that's why I said earlier, I really think that husbands and wives would really enjoy this, guys. It's a really fun date night. And gentlemen, guys, let me tell you, cook something like this for your wife. It's going to be a good date night. Those of you guys who don't cook and have a girlfriend or are married, you're missing out. I know it's fun to, it's nice to have your wife cook for you and everything. But believe me, guys, your wife will be very happy if you cook her an awesome dinner. And when your wife's very happy, you'll be happy. You're welcome, guys. Take that tip. Listen to me, guys. I'm telling you. All right, this is going in the blend. Now we will blend this up the rest of the way. All right, guys, here I have my Dutch oven. That's what this is called. But for this recipe, a heavy pot, this is a big heavy pot, is best. And then we're going to use some oil. I'm using coconut oil, which is appropriate for this dish because you guys will see later, a lot of coconut in this dish. So this is just, guys, this is just raw, you know, and it already smells incredible. And it doesn't even have half of all the ingredients that are going in. So what we're doing right now, guys, we're going to let this heat up and we're going to put this in here and start cooking down all these ingredients. The oils are going to start coming out of the peppers. All the spices are going to start blending together. It's going to be good. So I'm just going to pour this in. Just a little bit of the water in there. And that's just to get the extra little sauce and flavor because we don't waste. Well, we try not to. Wow, guys, look at all this flavor already. Absolutely incredible. All right, guys, we're going to let this cook for about 10 or 15 minutes. I'll show you the next step in just a minute. Guys, let's find out how to use this tamarind, which I believe is going to give it a nice sweet flavor. So it comes in these pods, you call them. In this bowl, I just have a half a cup of hot water and we're going to use three of these. And what you do is you peel off the shell and then there's this soft, gooey fruit in the middle. Have you had this before, Emma? I don't think so. So guys, my Mexican friends are right now talking to the screen. Tamarindo, tamarindo! Guys, the first time I tried a tamarindo candy, candy, speaking with a Spanish accent, the tamarindo candy. The Mexicans sell little lollipops or suckers that's made of this, but has chili powder on the outside. I tried it and started coughing. This is a very strange taste to somebody who's never eaten food like that. Sweet and spicy, but Mexicans love it. I think it's sweet and citrus. Yeah, a little bit sour. You want to try a little piece? No? Super sweet. I gave my wife a little piece and she went... So it's sour, guys, but it's also very sweet. You didn't taste any sweet? Well, also guys, camera wife is pregnant, so her tastes are super powered right now. And we read something earlier, she read something and told me that things taste twice as good to her or twice as bad too, I think. So like the other day, I ate a bunch of garlic when I made the chicken shawarma. Get the cookbook if you want to see that one, guys. And she wouldn't let me kiss her. She didn't even want me sleeping in the same room because she could smell it so bad, guys. So I understand because I always say that garlic makes everything better except for kisses. All right, guys, this is going to sit in this warm water for about 10 minutes and then we're going to stir it up into a paste. All right, guys, now we get to the fun part where everything starts happening fast. This has been cooking for about 15 minutes and now we're going to do something called blooming the aromatics. And to bloom means like when a flower opens up. So what it means to bloom the aromatics, and aromatics are the ingredients you use that smell good, aroma, smell. So blooming them means you put them in to cook and start making that smell get into the rest of the dish. So we have a cinnamon stick, boom. Two star anise. Oh, why are you so close, baby? Two star anise, which smell really good. I've never used these before. Three cardamom pods, which I'm going to pinch them. Pinch them like I'm going to pinch my wife. Three cardamom pods. A half teaspoon of ground clove. It's a good one, guys. Good spice. Half teaspoon. And then some of those kaffir lime leaves, which I had to buy dry because, guys, they don't carry stuff like this around here. So I ordered these on Amazon. So I'm going to use three of these. And you can see over here all the ingredients, which is going to give that a little mix. And that flavor is starting to bloom, guys. Wow, this is going to be a very complex dish. Complex is like a lot of different things all in one. So a language can be complex, difficult. Okay, now we also have some dried coconut here, and we're going to use this to make a coconut paste, which is called kerisik, kerisik, something like that. I don't know. I don't speak Indonesian. Oh, thank you, baby. So we're going to put one and a half cups of dry coconut into a dry pan. There's no oil in this pan because we're not frying it. You know what it's called when you do it in a dry pan, baby? What do you do to bread? Toast it. So we're going to toast one and a half cups of dried coconut. And you can see it's already starting to change color. And we're going to toast it until it turns a nice dark brown. Those flavors are blooming. And I'll show you guys when this is the color that we want. All right, guys, you can see that our coconut is looking great and toasted. And the most important thing, guys, keep moving it or it will burn. So now I'm going to let this cool off. I'll put it in our little food processor. This is going to make a paste. So guys, there's a lot of oil in coconut, which is how they make coconut oil. So once you start releasing it by cooking it and then grinding it up, it should make a nice paste. I'm going to let this cool off for a couple minutes before I blend it into a paste. And now we're going to cut up our beef, which is, I won't say the star of the show because I think the curry is the star of the show. But very important. All right, guys, we have a nice big chunk of beef. And this is going to cook for a long time. You want a piece of beef that has fat and tissue in it. We're going to cut it into nice chunks, about like that. And guys, when you cook meat that has fat and that tissue in it for a long time, all that's going to do is add more flavor to the sauce and it's going to melt down and become super soft and delicious. So never be scared of a little bit of fat in your meat. We just want nice chunks like this. Fat in there is going to be delicious. All right, guys, cut your beef up to be about this size. And then we're going to throw it right in here into our spice paste. And then we'll just start mixing this up, guys. Letting all that flavor get into the meat. Guys, I'm going to be honest with you. I think that getting the cookbook is worth it. Just so you can smell what all these dishes smell like, guys. Because let's say you're not from Indonesia or anywhere in Asia. This is going to be such a new experience for you. Say you're in Brazil, okay? And if you're in Asia, making feijoada from Brazil is going to be such an experience for you. So guys, this has been such a huge adventure for me making all these dishes. And I think if you enjoy cooking, it's really worth it to try something new and have a new adventure, especially with people you care about. Okay, now we're going to let this cook, let all those flavors mix in. And it's time to make our coconut paste. All right, let's see what this looks like. All right, guys. Here we have our coconut paste. Smells great. Now, let's work on our tamarind. Keep stirring the beef. We're trying to brown the beef up a little bit. Get some color on it because color is what, baby? Color is flavor. That's why I like my brown wife. Okay, so you can see that it got nice and soft. Has big seeds in it, guys. So you want to get the seeds out and leave behind all this. I'm sure there's a better way to do this. I just don't know it. So I'm just going to smash it all up in the water. And as long as the water is changing color, I know that it's getting that tamarind flavor in it. All right, guys. Now, something very important in this dish, coconut milk. This is going to be the liquid in this curry. It's going to make it delicious and give it a signature Asian flavor. I love coconut milk, guys. It's so creamy. So in these cans, guys, there's a big layer of the cream on top. And then underneath is some of the coconut water. And that cream is so good. I could just eat it with a spoon, guys. Love the flavor of coconut. So we added the coconut milk. And now we're going to add about three tablespoons of the tamarind water. All right. Last thing for now, guys. We're going to add in our, what's it called? Cursicake something. We're going to add our coconut paste. All right, guys. And now we mix all of our ingredients together and see what this will start to look like. And guys, this is going to cook for a long time. It's going to simmer, which means, do you know what simmering means, baby? Nope. Simmering is not the same as boiling. Boiling means big bubbles. Simmering means just a little bit. A very slow boil. All right, guys. And as this cooks, all those flavors are going to bloom. I just can't wait. You can see our little star anise in there looking like Patrick. You know who Patrick is, baby? From Spongebob? No. I wonder what they call him in Spanish. ¿Pobre Sponge? Pobre Sponge. What they call his little amigo. Okay, guys. And the last thing, these two lemongrasses. The part that you can't eat. You break them up like this, throw them in there. And that's just going to let that... Oh, my fingers smell like lemon now. It's going to let that citrus flavor get in there. And then you just don't eat that part. Guys, this is going to cook slow and low for three hours. I'll see you guys when it's time to eat the best dish in the world. All right, guys. It's been cooking for over an hour now. This is what it's looking like now. You can see that the oil is starting to separate. It's starting to turn a darker color. My wife asked me why I'm cooking it without a lid. Well, it's so that it can evaporate. You see the steam coming up? That's the liquid evaporating. Evaporating is when water gets hot and turns to steam. So the liquid will get thicker and thicker and thicker. Because that is something about beef rangdon that is one of its characteristics or one of the things that it's known for is that it's a very thick curry. It's not got a lot of liquid. You cook it until it's very thick. And in another hour and a half to two hours, you will see a lot more oil separated. And the oil separated will be starting to fry the meat. So this is what it looks like after about an hour. And a very important thing during this step is every 15 to 20 minutes, go ahead and stir it so that the part on the bottom doesn't burn. My beef is already looking good, guys. And in about two hours, that beef is going to be so tender that you can squeeze it and it'll just fall apart. So I'll see you guys in an hour and a half to two hours. All right, guys, you can see how it's looking. You see the oil separated. It got very thick. That's how you know it's done. I just made some plain white rice to go with it. And then over here, apparently they serve it with slices of cucumber. And it's a fresh contrast, which means something different. So it's different than the main flavors of this, which makes it taste good together. And then I'm just going to use a little bit of green onion just to decorate it. And I can't wait. So guys, this has been cooking for three hours. It's six o'clock now. Yeah, so we've been preparing this since a little bit before two we started, guys. But if you're considering making this, I'm not trying to scare you off because it's not super difficult. It just takes a long time. Where some other recipes like dolma are difficult and have a ton of work. This is nowhere near as difficult as the dolma. All right, guys, let's see if my little rice trick worked. Now let's get some beef rendang. And they call it a dry curry because it's not got a ton of liquid. And then you put a little bit of green onion on top. And they probably don't do this in Indonesia or Malaysia. This is Chef Kyle's touch. All right, guys, this is my version of Indonesian slash Malaysian beef rendang. Okay, guys, you see camera wife got some ramen to eat because her stomach's been giving her some issues lately. So she didn't want to try this dish that has a bunch of peppers and things like that in it. She's still going to try a little bit. But she needed something a little simpler for dinner. So she got some good ramen. I'm kind of nervous to try this. Normally, I'm tasting while I'm cooking. I haven't tasted this at all yet, guys. Part of because they say it's the best dish. So I'm like, I'm scared to taste it. There's a lot of buildup. So let's see. Cut it with a fork. So tender. Guys, very delicious. Falling apart. The texture of the beef is incredible. That taste of the coconut is absolutely delicious. A great dish, guys. I don't know if it's the best dish in the world. Because I've tried a lot of the dishes in the world now. Definitely up there, guys. Absolutely delicious. Shout out to our Indonesian and Malaysian friends. Thank every single one of you for being here with me, supporting me. Thank you to the camera life for helping me so much. I appreciate you, baby. I appreciate every single one of you guys. And I'll see you in the next video. All right, my friends. I am full. I am very full. The rendang was delicious. And now we're going to learn some interesting facts about both Indonesia and Malaysia. Because like I said, it's very popular in both of those countries. So let's start with Indonesia. Indonesia has over 17,000 islands, guys. The country is made up of a group of islands. And there are over 17,000 of them. Some of them really small. Some of them big. Oh, wow. That's a lot of different islands. Another interesting fact. It has more volcanoes than any country on earth. And 130 of them are active. You know what it means if a volcano is active? That it explodes. So when in Indonesia, watch out for the volcanoes. Indonesian friends, tell me. Is that scary living by an active volcano? Next. Indonesia has more than 700 languages. It's one of the most linguistically diverse countries on earth. There are more than 700 languages spoken on all those islands. That's a whole lot of different languages. I didn't know there were that many languages on earth. I'm guessing they mean dialects too. But people are speaking 700 different ways over there. Now let's talk about Malaysia. Malaysia has a very interesting government style. What they have is called a rotating king. And every five years, a person from a different royal family is chosen to be king. So they change king every five years. Now why this is strange is because normally a king is a king until he dies. And then he passes it on to his son. Not in Malaysia. In Malaysia, every five years, a kingship goes to a different person from a different family. Maybe it's a good idea actually to spread the power around. And then at least if one king gets in and it's crazy, you only have to deal with him for a few years. Next. Maybe you're thinking of Indonesia as... Or maybe you think of Malaysia as just like jungle, okay? Tropical paradise, beaches. But it's actually a very developed country. In fact, between 1998 and 2004, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia were the tallest skyscrapers in the whole world. And next and last interesting fact about Malaysia. Malaysia is home to some of the oldest rainforests on earth. Even older than the Amazon. And the rainforests in Malaysia are over 130 million years old. So they say. I don't know if my wife believes me. She's like, okay guys, those are some interesting facts. And one thing that I know for a fact, there's some good food over there. So I hope that our Malaysian and Indonesian friends enjoyed seeing their countries represented. It was my honor to cook a dish that is very special to you guys. And now it's special to me as well. So my friends, I will see you in the next video.