Classic Malaysian Beef Rendang Stew
I know I’ve been away for a long time from this blog – almost a year! Work has consumed me and then something dreadful happened in between. While I was shooting for a client, I got my MacBook drenched with water the second time, so it’s total data loss – two years’ worth of data completely irretrievable. Thankfully I’ve backed up all my Lightroom and Photoshop files but my Capture One master files are gone. I’m in mourning. How does one deal with this… I’ve good news though, I’ve gotten myself a new MacBook, managed to salvage whatever remnants of the data I had left. And I upgraded my camera! The Canon 5D Mark IV has always been something I’ve wanted to own for the longest time, and when I finally bought a secondhand good quality camera, I was over the moon! I shoot alot with natural sunlight but these days because I’ve started to pivot to shooting reels and food videos, I had to invest in a brand new Godox SL60W artificial light with a honeycomb grid which really levelled up my game.
Last week, I made this classic Malaysian beef rendang recipe for Homiah Foods. It is a rich and tender (slow-simmered) coconut beef stew – cooked with Southeast Asian ‘rempah’ (herbs and spices) – which has its origins in Indonesia. Traditionally, buffalo meat is used but I went with beef instead. I served it with blue coconut rice (nasi kerabu) coloured with butterfly pea flower. Nasi kerabu is a traditional dish in the east coast states of Malaysia. If you’re adventurous and love spicy food like me, rendang is one delicacy with incredible flavour and texture that you must try. Beef rendang is a dish that takes first place in my home because my dad cooks it so often. He loves to pair it with glutinous rice cooked with turmeric (nasi kunyit).
If you made this dish, let me know by tagging @saveurmalaisie on Instagram.
Classic Malaysian Beef Rendang Stew
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 500 g beef shank
- 226 ml thick coconut milk divided
- 100 ml water or just enough to cover the meat during cooking
- 1 piece dried tamarind slice (assam keping) if it's a large slice, put only 1/2
- 1 tbsp toasted coconut paste (kerisik)
- 1-2 sheets turmeric leaves (daun kunyit)
- 2-3 pieces makrut lime leaves
- gula melaka (palm sugar) to taste alternatively, brown sugar
- salt to taste
For meat marinade
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
For blended spice paste
- 4 pieces shallots
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 inch ginger
- 1 inch turmeric root (kunyit)
- 1 inch blue ginger (galangal)
- 2 sticks lemongrass peeled, tough outer woody layers removed
- 10-15 pieces fresh dried red chillies pre-boiled 3-5 minutes to reduce spiciness then sieved to remove seeds
- some water and oil for blending
Grinded spice powder (optional)
- 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tbsp fennel seeds
Instructions
- Clean the beef and drain to remove excess water. Remove the tendon and muscles. Cut the meat against the grain - look for the parallel lines of muscle fibre running down the length of meat and slice perpendicular to them. Each piece should be about 1 inch thick cube.
- Marinade the meat with salt, sugar, pepper and water then massage it firmly with your hands until it has absorbed the liquid. Drizzle 1 tbsp of oil to seal the marinade. Set aside.
- Remove the spines of the turmeric leaves then roll it and slice thinly. For the makrut leaves, do the same but instead of slicing, you can just tear it roughly. Store leaves in a closed container to avoid drying out while you prep the other ingredients.
- Combine the ingredients for blended spice paste in a blender and blend until it becomes a fine paste.
- In a pan, toast the coriander, cumin and fennel seeds without oil until aromatic. Transfer to a pestle and grind into fine powder. This step is optional.
- In a heated wok on low heat, add 1 cup of oil and stir fry the blended spice paste then add 1 packet of Homiah Foods' Indonesian Rendang Spice Kit. Stir fry the spice paste on low heat for 5-10 minutes until the oil separates and the spice paste has turned slightly darker and liquid reduced or dried up a little.
- Add the beef and the grinded spice powder (optional). Increase to medium heat and stir well, cook for 5 minutes.
- Add 113ml of thick coconut milk and 100ml water (sufficient to cover the meat), then switch to high heat. Wait until it starts to boil then reduce the heat to medium and cover the wok. Cook for 1 hour until the water is reduced and the meat is tender. Stir the rendang from time to time to avoid burning.
- After an hour, remove the cover and increase the heat to high to evaporate excess liquid. Pour in the remaining 113ml of coconut milk. Add dried tamarind slice (assam keping) and keep stirring. Cook until the gravy has thickened and caramelised.
- Next, add the toasted coconut paste (kerisik), turmeric leaves (daun kunyit) and makrut leaves. Stir to combine. Season to taste with gula melaka and salt. When the rendang cools, the gravy will dry up and thicken considerably.
- Garnish with slices of turmeric leaves. Serve with blue coconut rice as part of herb rice (nasi kerabu), which usually consists of salted egg, fish crackers and raw vegetable salad (ulam) such as chopped lemongrass, torch ginger flower (bunga kantan), blanched long beans, four angled beans or bean sprouts.