Beef rendang
- Published: 17 Oct 17
- Updated: 18 Mar 24
Claire Thomson’s impressive curry recipe – made up of caramelised spiced beef, coconut milk and coconut shavings – is great alongside plain rice and a cucumber salad.
-
Serves 4 with rice
-
Hands-on time 25 min, simmering time 45-75 min
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 lemongrass stalks, sliced lengthways and bruised with the back of a knife or a rolling pin
- 6 kaffir lime leaves (fresh or dried)
- 2-3 cloves, ground in a pestle and mortar
- 1 star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 600g braising steak, cut into 3cm cubes
- 400ml tin coconut milk
- 1 tbsp tamarind paste (from a jar)
- 1 tsp palm sugar (or any sugar)
- 50g coconut flakes or shavings
- Cooked rice to serve
For the curry paste
- 3 shallots, roughly chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 5cm fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 4-6 fresh red bird’s eye chillies or ½-1 tbsp chilli flakes (depending on how hot you like it)
Method
- Whizz all the curry paste ingredients in a mini blender until smooth.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan. Over a low heat, gently fry the paste for about 10 minutes.
- Add the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, ground cloves, star anise and cinnamon stick. Turn up the heat to moderate and add 100ml cold water, then bring to a simmer and cook gently until completely dry and sticky, and all the water has been absorbed.
- Add the beef pieces and cook gently for 10 minutes, then add the coconut milk, tamarind, 1 tsp salt and the sugar. Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes on a low heat or until you have a dark brown rich-tasting curry sauce and the beef is tender. Add a tablespoon of water here and there throughout the cooking process if the pan gets too dry. Taste, adding more salt or sugar to taste.
- In a small frying pan over a moderate heat, dry-fry the coconut until it’s light brown. Serve the curry with the toasted coconut sprinkled over and with cooked rice on the side.
- Recipe from September 2017 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 529kcals
- Fat
- 38.4g (22.8g saturated)
- Protein
- 35.3g
- Carbohydrates
- 9.4g (7.1g sugars)
- Fibre
- 2.5g
- Salt
- 0.3g
delicious. tips
If you like, you can save shopping time by swapping the curry-paste ingredients for a ready-made rendang paste, available from most supermarkets.
This is the perfect dish to make ahead because the flavour will improve when it’s kept overnight and reheated. To freeze, cool completely and freeze in portions. Defrost overnight in the fridge, then reheat until piping hot.
Buy ingredients online
Rate & review
Rate
Reviews
Subscribe to our magazine
Food stories, skills and tested recipes, straight to your door... Enjoy 5 issues for just £5 with our special introductory offer.
Subscribe
Unleash your inner chef
Looking for inspiration? Receive the latest recipes with our newsletter