Beef rendang

Source: Various

Ingredients:
1 kg beef, cubed
2 serai, crushed
2 daun kunyit
3 daun jeruk
3 daun salam
1 tbsp asam jawa
1 to 1.5 l coconut milk
salt to taste

Blend (A)
10 fresh chillies (5 if from Toom)
2.5 cm ginger
2.5 cm kunyit or 1 tsp turmeric powder
2.5 cm lengkuas/galanggal
10 shallots
5 cloves garlic

Instructions:
1. Tumis A with crushed serai/lemongrass, daun kunyit/turmeric leaves, and other leaves (optional) till fragrant. I recently added a few kaffir lime leaves.
2. Add coconut milk. Recipe calls for 1.5l, but 1 l should be enough.
3. Add 1 tbs asam jawa and salt, boil.
4. Add beef.
5. Cook on very low fire till meat turns dark brown (5 hours) and there's very little gravy. If you don't find it sweet enough, add some palm sugar.

When cooked: Long time ago, in Frankfurt
Which meal: Lunch
Missing ingredients: Nil
Exchanged ingredients: Nil
Difficulty Level: 5
Others: Maybe it's the beef I use, but the rendang never gets as tender as I like it. Best rendang I've tasted is Karen's mum's and Peramakan's (restaurant in Joo Chiat).

Verdict: Well, it's rendang, and rendang is always a treat for Eddie and I. Brian hasn't learnt how to eat it yet.

2008 Update: I got round to cooking this dish again, after 3 years! This time in Moscow. And I had to omit daun kunyit, daun salam and daun jeruk as I didn't have these. Still turned out all right. And this time, Brian has learned to eat rendang and ate 2 plates of rice with it!

Note to self: This takes a long time, so start early, not at 5pm!

Sept 2008 Update: Cooked this again, and this time I started early about 1pm, so rendang was ready for dinner. I've found the right cut of beef in Moscow so am so pleased cos the meat turns out so tender and delicious. You've gotta look out for cuts which have lots of tendons and some fats. This time I boiled just 500ml of coconut milk first, and added the rest of the 500ml (about 100ml each time) as the liquid gets reduced. Not sure if this helped, but the rendang sure tasted good today.