Beef rendang
- Portion size: Serves 4 with rice
- Hands-on time 25 min, simmering time 45-75 min
- Difficulty: easy
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.
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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)
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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.
Nutrition
- 529kcals Calories
- 38.4g (22.8g saturated) Fat
- 35.3g Protein
- 9.4g (7.1g sugars) Carbs
- 2.5g Fibre
- 0.3g Salt
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