Beef Rendang Recipe

The best beef rendang you'll ever make. Super tender meat that's been slow cooked in aromatic sauce. Imagine there is some delicious flavors from the spices, herbs and coconut milk. If you're new here, I'm Bea and I'm from Malaysia. Ever since I moved to Spain, I have to learn how to cook all of my traditional meals and today I'm going to show you one of my favorite ones. Rendang is very easy to make but it does take a bit of your time. It's totally worth it, trust me. Let's start with making the aromatic paste that's gonna be the key to our delicious rendang. Here I have 25 dried chilies, they are for the heat. You can adjust the amount to your liking or of course skip that. First we're gonna cut the chilies into small pieces to remove the seeds. My late mother loved to use Thai chilies to make our rendang spicier. Now let's soak them in some boiling water for half an hour or until they are softer. Once softer, drain the water and this is how they're gonna look like. Let's add them to our food processor. Now lemon grass, you'll need six of them. What you want to do is peel the outer layer and use only the white part. Discard the woody green part. Cut them in small pieces so that they blend better. Here I have around two inch of galangal. Fresh or frozen works great but don't mistake it for ginger. They look similar but they're not the same. Also two inch of ginger goes in, six garlic cloves and one onion. Try to use a small blender or a mini processor. This way all the ingredients are going to blend faster into a fine paste. Add a splash of water to help the blending process. Now that we have the paste ready, let's get cooking. Heat some oil on medium heat. The spices that we're gonna use are one cinnamon stick, one star anise, four cloves and four cardamom pods. I'm also gonna add one lemon grass that I heat with the back of a knife. Using the lemon grass will help releasing more of its flavor. Now add in our wholemeat rendang paste. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until it turns into a thick paste. Don't forget to stir now and then. Now I'm gonna add 2.2 pounds of beef that I've cut into two inch cubes. I'm using beef chops with some fat on them. That's gonna guarantee super Let's coat every piece of the meat with the lovely paste. Now we're gonna add the rest of the ingredients. I'm using 10 kaffir lime leaves that I sliced very thinly. My mother also likes to add turmeric leaves, 2 tablespoons of coconut sugar, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 tablespoon of concentrated cooking tamarind and finally one can of coconut milk. That's 14 ounces. What we want to do now is simmer this with the lid on for one hour. Remember to always stir now and then so that nothing sticks at the bottom. After one hour the meat should be soft to the touch. Not falling apart yet, just soft to the touch. Now we're gonna continue without the lid on until the sauce dries up and by that time the meat will be super tender, deliciously caramelized and darker in color. More tips with the written recipe on our website elmundoeats.com. It feels like home. With my family we always have this rendang especially during festive celebration like IDPT. What is your celebration meal?