With the cooling weather I am pulling out some stewing recipes and one of my favourites is beef rendang! Beef rendang is an Indonesian style of curry where the meat is slowly cooked in coconut milk along with garlic, ginger, galangal, lemongrass, shallots, chills and other spices until the coconut milk has been absorbed and the meat is nice and tender. This is a beef version where you start with a stewing beef like sort-ribs or chuck that is cut into bites sizes pieces before being browned and then cooked in the coconut milk along with cinnamon, cloves, star anise and cardamon until it is falling apart tender! The curry is finished off with some sour tamarind paste, sweet coconut sugar and salt creating a magical combination of spicy, sour, sweet and salty! Near the end, shredded lime leaves and toasted coconut flakes are added for extra flavorful and aroma. Rendang takes a while to cook but it’s super easy to make, in fact you can even make it in a slow cooker!
Beef Rendang
An easy to make authentic Indonesia/Malaysia beef curry that just melts in your mouth!
ingredients
- 10 dried chilies, soaked in hot water until tender
- 5 shallots (or 1 small onion), diced
- 2 tablespoons galangal, grated
- 2 tablespoons ginger, grated
- 4 tablespoons garlic, minced or grated
- 2 tablespoons lemongrass, chopped
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 pound beef, cut into bite sized cubes
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 cloves
- 3 star anise
- 3 cardamom pods
- 1 stalk lemongrass, pounded
- 1 (14oz) can coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon tamarind paste (or concentrate)
- 2 large kaffir lime leaves (sliced)
- 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar (aka coconut sugar) (or brown sugar or sugar)
- salt to taste
directions
- Process the chilies, shallots, galangal, ginger, garlic, and lemongrass in a food processor until it forms a paste.
- Heat the oil in a large sauce pan and brown the beef on all sides.
- Add the paste from step 1, along with the cinnamon, cloves, star anise, cardamom, and lemongrass and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
- Add the coconut milk and tamarind, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the beef is fall apart tender, about 1-2 hours.
- Add the kaffir lime leaves, coconut and palm sugar and cook another minute before seasoning with salt to taste.
- Remove the cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise, cardamon and lemongrass stalk and enjoy!
Note: Use about 3 stalks lemongrass, the white tender part only.
Slow Cooker: Optionally implement steps 1-3 before throwing everything into the slow cooker and cooking on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 2-4 hours.
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Looks fabulous. You are fast becoming my fav food blog!
Hey Great Content Kevin. You really Bring It, keep up the fabulous work, I’ve been a subscriber for years and you never disappoint! Can’t wait to try this recipe!!!
Wow, that looks so rich! I could get used to that very quickly.
I can just imagine the wonderful smells coming from your kitchen.
Wow! You finally made beef rendang. Looking good, Kevin!
There is one ingredient missing to make this rendang become more West Sumatran authentic, add turmeric leaves. I have to plant turmeric on my own since there is no turmeric leaves sold in Winnipeg.
That looks delicious, kev! I like mine topped with some bawang goreng (crispy fried shallot) please. 🙂
ah, I always zoom into dishes like this whenever I see it served at buffets! Sadly, more often than not, it ends up dry and tough. But braising it for hours at home will definitely eliminate this possibility! Thanks for sharing the recipe Kevin! I hope to get to this soon!
Braising beef in coconut milk? Interesting! This dish looks great with a nice set of ingredients to back it up. This is something I would enjoy.
This sounds neat! I have never had any kind of meat cooked with coconut milk, maybe I’ll give it as try sometime.
I dont think I have ever had beef with coconut. It sounds great!
I never heard of Beef Rendang before. Now you have a long list of recipes that you had tried and a long list waiting for you to try. This is good because I like to see what your are making Kevin.
That aroma must have been heavenly..I can well imagine!!!!
braising is such a nice way to add so much flavor to meat! this looks just delicious!
Oh Kevin….. I am so proud of you, you made rendang, and Indonesian rendang! yay…
Cheers,
Elra
Another great creation Kevin!
Hi Kevin
This is my firsttime here. U have a lovely space.I will keep visiting it often 🙂
Rendang looks so yummy n inviting.
Do have a look at my blog.
What a great recipe! With 10 chilies, what was the heat level like? I really like beef and coconut flavor, and I bet this was wonderful. Was this “soupy”? It looks just terrific.
A dish I love! Yummy!
Cheers,
Rosa
Bravo! What great flavors in this dish!
This looks very delicious Kevin! I just adore calling by and viewing your creations 🙂 I must bookmark your beef rendang to try out.
Rosie x
I too have been wanting to make this, till now have not made them.
This looks so yummy.
This is a very aromatic dish Kevin.
Oh the smells of your home Kevin! Love this.
I have been coming to your blog for a few months now and am alway excited about the things you try—hoping it will rub off on me.
When is the cookbook coming out. you give great details, excellent photos and a wide variety of cuisine.
~Kena
oh dear, you’ll ruin my plan to diet… lol… lovely, kevin, just lovely… 🙂
Oooh, that looks good! I love the subtle spicy flavours of this dish.
Another terrific recipe – STILL haven’t tried coconut milk and I am seeing it everywhere!
I need to add it to my pantry purchase list.
I love beef rendang — it’s the specialty of Boston’s most popular Malaysian restaurant, and is a dish we enjoyed on our travels in Malaysia, too.
This looks gorgeous and those flavours sound lovely.
Kevin, I love beef rendang and I think it’s great you made it using short ribs. I’ll have to try this too.
I love beef rendang. I’ve never made it myself so I’m going to bookmark your recipe. Thanks!
I always order beef rendang when I eat out in restaurants. Good going making it! the list of ingredients is daunting to me!
Nice! Redeng !!! Great recipe
wow!! Kevin!! must salut you now wt Beef rendang !!! love this dish !! Malaysian love this dish too!! How you find so much ingredients in your place? Add more spicy for me please!!…
Whoa there are some neat ingredients in this dish. Looks great and I can imagine that it did smell great while cooking!
Great flavors, would have never thought of pairing lemongrass and cinnamon…
That is on my to try list too! It looks delish!
this is another dish I have never heard of, but it really sounds like something I would love!
I love beef rendang… Thanks for the inspiration… i think I’ll have to make this for dinner this weekend. And if you can believe it, I have all the ingredients (except the beef) in my pantry. Better yet, I have some of that fabulous Vietnamese Cinnamon that White on Rice Couple was waxing on about.
I just got an Indonisian cookbook and would love to try this. Sounds excellent.
I’ve never heard of Beef Rendang but it sounds fantastic! I love short ribs and am always looking for different recipes for them. I can’t even imagine how good they must be with coconut milk. This is a definite must try!
Never even heard of this one! I love all the interesting dishes you try!
Fantastic combination of spices! Whoever dines with you is so lucky!
Hey kevin! Thanks for the comment! peanutbutter at any tempreature’s is so good! Beef rendang’s one of my fav and ur dish looks superb!
Just to share with you a Chinese recipe – stewed beef shank, http://www.tastehongkong.com/recipes/stewed-beef-shank. Enjoy,TasteHongKong
i LOVE beef rendang and never thought to make it myself! this certainly looks easy enough. i’m definitely bookmarking this.
Heart warming bowl of food with flavorsome beef and rice,the coconut does make it a rich dish.
Paula: No, it was not soupy. It was simmered until almost all of the liquid is gone. It was more pasty and that allowed all of the flavourful sauce to stick to the beef.
I love Beef Rendang. I tried making it once, but I think the quality of the meat was lacking so I ended up not enjoying it as much as I should have but freaked out about the flavour. This sure is a classic!
I love Beef Rendang! I really should give it a try! 🙂
I'm proud of you to make Beef Rendang.. it's one of my country (Indonesia) famous food. There's another popular food from Indonesia, it's "Nasi Goreng" (Fried Rice) ..
Is this recipe gluten-free.?I love it,but have a friend with coeliac,can only eat gluten free.On the lookout for gluten free Christmas recipes as well Kevin.
This recipe is gluten-free!
I can almost smell this through my computer screen! Looks absolutely delicious, Kevin!
This sounds really wonderful, but there are several items that I don’t have in my cupboard, so I will have to give this one a pass, sadly.