Beef Rendang is a rich, dry-style curry from Indonesia made by slowly simmering beef in a fragrant mix of spices, coconut milk, and toasted coconut. Over a few hours, the sauce reduces down to a thick, caramelised coating, and the beef becomes meltingly tender. It’s spicy, savoury, slightly sweet, and often served with rice and a fresh herb salad.
Category
Dinner
Servings
4
Prep time
30 minutes
Cook time
2 hours 45 minutes
Beef Rendang is a rich, dry-style curry from Indonesia made by slowly simmering beef in a fragrant mix of spices, coconut milk, and toasted coconut. Over a few hours, the sauce reduces down to a thick, caramelised coating, and the beef becomes meltingly tender. It’s spicy, savoury, slightly sweet, and often served with rice and a fresh herb salad.
Ingredients
- 10 dried small chillies, deseeded
- 4 shallots, chopped
- 2 lemongrass sticks, white part only, chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, smashed
- 5 candlenuts
- 1cm piece turmeric, peeled
- thumb-size piece ginger, peeled, chopped
- thumb-size piece galangal, peeled, chopped
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ¼ cup (60ml) neutral oil (grapeseed, peanut, vegetable)
- 1.2kg beef cheeks, silverskin trimmed, 2cm cubes
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 star anise
- 4 cloves
- 4 cardamom pods
- 4 kaffir lime leaves
- 400ml coconut milk
- 1 tbsp palm sugar
- 1 tbsp tamarind paste
- 40g shredded coconut
- 4 baby cucumbers, halved lengthways and chopped
- ½ cup coriander leaves
- ½ cup mint leaves,
- lime wedges, toasted peanuts, steamed rice, to serve
Directions
In a food processor or blender, blend the chillies, shallots, lemongrass, garlic, candlenuts, turmeric, ginger, galangal, salt and 2 tbsp of the oil.
- Heat the remaining oil in a heavy based saucepan on medium-high heat. Cook the curry paste, stirring, for 5 minutes until fragrant.
- Add the cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves, cardamom, lime leaves and cook for a further 2 minutes.
- Add the beef to the pot and stir until the beef is covered in the paste, then stir in the coconut milk.
- Bring to a very low simmer and cook for 2 hours, covered, then a further 30 minutes uncovered, stirring every 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the coconut in a dry frying pan on medium heat, to toast to a dark golden colour.
- Transfer to a mortar and pestle and pound it into a paste.
- Stir coconut paste into beef, along with tamarind and palm sugar. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Combine cucumbers, coriander, mint and a squeeze of lime in a medium bowl.
- Serve curry with steamed rice, salad sprinkled with peanuts and extra lime wedges.
