Rendang (Indonesian Beef and Coconut Stew)
Photo: Sakurai Midori, CC BY-SA 3.0
Rendang is a slow Indonesian stew in which beef simmers in coconut milk until the liquid reduces to a dark, spicy sauce that coats every cube. The fresh spice paste of galangal, turmeric, ginger, candlenuts and chile builds the flavor, and adding the milk in small portions lets each one cook down properly. It also reheats well, and many cooks find it tastes better the next day.
Instructions
Grind the garlic, shallots, ginger, turmeric, galangal, chile, pepper, nutmeg, candlenuts, salt and palm sugar together in a food processor to make a spice paste.
Toss the beef cubes with the spice paste and leave them to marinate for at least 1 hour.
Warm the coconut milk in a pan over low heat, stirring as it cooks. It is ready when some oil rises to the surface, which takes at least 20 minutes.
Put the marinated meat and paste in a large wok or pot, add the lime leaves and lemongrass, and pour in 300 ml of the hot coconut milk. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring now and then, until half of that milk has evaporated.
Stir in another 100 ml of hot coconut milk and keep stirring until almost all of it has cooked away. Repeat with 100 ml at a time until the coconut milk is used up.
Keep cooking until the beef is tender, at least 1½ hours in total, and almost all the liquid has reduced to a thick, spicy sauce clinging to the meat. If you cook it ahead, the coconut oil may set as it cools, so reheat it in a pan before serving.
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