Beef Rendang
A curry dish of Indonesian origin and a worthy centre-piece dish, made with succulent beef cubes, coconut milk, chillies, ginger, turmeric, lemon grass, lime leaves.
prep time
20 mins
cook time
2 hours
serves
6 people
Ingredients
- 675g boneless braising beef, cut into 2.5cm cubes
- 2-3 tablespoons oil
- 1 lemongrass stalk, white part only, bruised
- 4 fresh kaffir lime leaves
- 1 x 400g can reduced fat coconut milk
- Fresh coriander leaves, to garnish
For the spice paste:
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 8-10 whole cloves
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 1-2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1-2 tablespoons ground turmeric or 50g fresh turmeric, peeled
- 1 x 4cm piece fresh galangal or ginger, peeled
- 12 whole garlic cloves, peeled
- 5 fresh red chillies, seeds removed
- 2 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped
- 8 raw cashew nuts
- 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
Method
- For the spice paste, put all the ingredients into a blender and pulse to a smooth consistency, adding a little water if needed.
- Heat the oil in a large casserole pan or non-stick saucepan over moderate heat. Add the spice paste then cover and cook over a low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until reduced to a thick paste.
- Add the beef, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. Stir well.
- Gradually add the coconut milk, stirring gently. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally or until the beef is tender and the sauce is slightly dry.
- Garnish with the fresh coriander leaves and serve with steamed brown basmati rice and poppadoms or flatbreads.
