2 kg beef diced like goulash-style
3 grated ripe coconuts or 3-4 cans of coconut milk
I. Basic paste: It can be made with an electric blender but I still use the old lumpang(Indonesian mortar and pestle)
30 shallots
10 cloves of garlic
1 piece of ginger root about a finger-length
100 g red chilis
pepper
II. Additional spices ground to a paste:
1 galanga root
3 lemon grass shoots
3 anis stars
5 keffir lime leaves
5 salam leaves(Indonesian laurels)
2 curcuma leaves
III. Other additional ingredients:
1 teaspoon grated coconut roasted until gold brown(serundeng), then crush it with a mortal and pestle until the oil separates from the rest)
1 table spoon minced boiled beef liver
1 table spoon tamarind water
salt, sugar
How to prepare and cook:
1. Make the coconut milk by hand if possible. If you can't find fresh coconuts you can take the canned ones. Soak the grated coconuts in 4 cups of water for 1 hour, then press through a strainer. The texture and thicknes depends a lot on how much water you take and how long you soak it
2..Saute the meat and the basic paste until fragrant. Add some water and continue to simmer on low heat until the water has evaporated. If the heat is too low, the meat may become to tender and fall apart. Observe the dish carefully
3.. Add the coconut milk and additional spices no II ground to a paste, add more water if necessary .
4.. Continue to stir and lower the heat, test the meat for tenderness
5.. Add additional ingredients no III
6.. Continue to simmer on low heat until it has the typical dark brown colour that is so special about rendang. The water needs to evaporate until it is dry. It is the caramelised coconut milk and grated coconut which gives the dish the natural brown colour
Of course rendang needs a lot of patience due to the slow cooking until it is tender. I just remember that I ordered a nice-looking and fragrant rendang in a renowned Padang restaurant in Jakarta but then I became so disappointed because I had a hard time to cut the tough meat with a knife. Apparently they wanted to save money on electricity or gas.
Later I met a German lady in the airplane. She has visited Indonesia many times and gave me tips about how to give the rendang the brown colour. I stayed polite as she told me that everybody praised her rendang. But I thought that the dish was given a 'shock therapy' by putting it into the oven. I have also tried it in a pressure cooker. In this case we have to cook the meat with the spices until tender in a relatively short time. However, I found that because the boiling time is cut short, the dish couldn't get that special brown black colour we can only achieve by caramelising the coconut gravy
