Hi I'm Rich Harris and welcome back to my Asian bites series.
In this episode I am going to be showing you one of my all time favorites.
It is a classic Malaysian dish of beef rendang.
Slowly stewed beef, full of spices, lemongrass, ginger, and garlic and it's absolutely delicious.
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The first thing we need to do is toast the spices.
So the spices I've got here are some of the ones that are central to Malaysian cooking.
I've got star anise, cinnamon, cumin, cloves, and cardamom as well.
And the most important thing with these spices is that we roast them off to get the full
flavor out of them.
So I'm going to put them out into a dry frying pan all together and just keep shaking them
round gently.
Roasting spices is a really really important part of making any curry.
There's two ways of telling if the spices are toasted.
One use your eyes.
These cumin seeds are starting to turn a deep nutty brown so we know they are almost done.
But also, use your nose.
They're starting to just smell really fragrant, getting all those flavors of the star anise,
cloves, and the cumin coming up at you.
Now the spices are toasted just take them off the heat and I'm using this, this is a
lovely old Indonesian coffee grinder I picked up in a flea market and it does a great job
of grinding spices.
If you don't have one of these, pestle and mortar will do or one of the more modern electric
spice grinders.
Just going to spoon the spices inside.
These spices, particularly things like cinnamon, star anise and cloves are central to Malaysian
cooking.
They add such a depth of flavor and go brilliantly with the beef.
Now toasting and grinding your own spices might seem like quite a lot of effort and
you might just think why not just buy them ready ground?
But it really does make a difference.
It may seem like a lot of ingredients in this dish but really it is just throwing them all
together and then letting it cook slowly.
And for a full list of ingredients see the description box.
So it's quite a work out, gets your guns going, but it's definitely worth it because that
is gold dust.
It smells amazing, it's really really deep roasted flavors.
The cinnamon, cumin, and really the star anise as well.
It just smells great.
All great curries in Southeast Asian cooking are based around one thing, which is a spice
paste.
It's really important that you get this bit right because the rest of the curry just follows.
So next to add, I've got a load of dried red chilis.
About ten, twelve red chilis, and they've just been soaked in a bit of warm water just
to rehydrate them.
Put them in.
And then, a load of chopped lemongrass is going to add loads of fragrance to the curry.
And some shallots, ginger and garlic, spoonful of salt, and then some of this.
This is tamarind water.
So it is just tamarind seeds that have been soaked in warm water and strained and this
adds a really great sourness to the dish.
Pour that in.
Then finally, a couple of spoonfuls of vegetable oil.
Lid on, and blitz it.
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Now, this is ready to rock.
I've got a nice heavy based casserole here just heating up over a medium to high heat.
You don't need any oil in there because is already oil in the spice paste.
Just straight in.
And at this point stand back.
Don't be tempted to get your face in and have a good whiff because there's chili in there
that's going to blow your face off.
See, told you.
I got too close.
Don't do it.
Alright, this is catching the back of my throat and burning my eyes but it is fine it's all
in the name of food.
So now our spice paste is almost cooked off, it's almost time to add the star ingredient.
This stuff here.
This is our beef.
It's chuck steak and what I've done is taken one large piece and just cut it into really
nice big cubes.
What we're looking for is just this beautiful marbling on there.
That's just all going to render out That's all collagen and fat that is just going
to render out and give us just beautifully tender beef.
So chuck all of that straight in.
Give it a good old mix up.
So that spice paste completely coats the beef.
This is where you really start to build the flavors and it really gets exciting.
I love this dish.
It's one of these things that, yes it takes five or ten minutes to get going, once you've
made your spice paste, but after that, pour in your coconut milk and just leave it to
cook slowly.
Your whole house will smell fantastic by the end of it and you'll get rewarded with the
stickiest darkest curry you've ever tasted.
So next up add some palm sugar.
This is going to add some great sweetness to the dish and also caramelize slowly as
it cooks.
Giving us that dark, sticky, traditional beef rendang.
And also, whole can of coconut milk.
And then take your can of coconut milk and then half fill it with water.
Pour that in as well.
And then this.
I've just taken the fresh coconut and grated it roughly and toasted it off in the dry frying
pan.
That's bubbling up and smelling awesome so just bring it up to a simmer and chuck a lid
on top and then cook over low heat for a good two to three hours.
So that's been cooking away for about two and a half hours now and if you take a look
in there.
That is gorgeous.
Really sticky, sumptuous.
Beef started to break down.
Everything's caramelized beautifully.
That is exactly what I'm after.
Can't wait to eat it.
So to go with that, quite simply, I've got some steamed rice and some wedges of lime.
You don't need anything else.
All the flavor is in this.
So, going to serve a bit of rice.
If you are a bit short on time you can try cooking this in a pressure cooker and then
it takes around an hour on full pressure.
But for me it's really about the slow cook.
Give it a good stir.
Oh the smell of that, you just kind of get this punch from the star anise and the coconut
and from that cinnamon as well.
Just finish with a nice squeeze of lime just to give it a bit of zing.
And there we have it.
One of my favorite dishes in the world is my Malaysian beef rendang.
Absolutely delicious.
So that's it for me from the series.
I hope you've enjoyed the recipes and hopefully I've inspired you to fill your kitchen with
all the smells and flavors of Southeast Asia.
I'm off to enjoy this with a cold beer.
Cheers.
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