Rendang - my better half is from Indonesia. This is just a stock photo, but it's fabulous. Trouble is that you have to boil it down at a very low heat, so it takes about 6 or 8 hours to make.
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Bonus Rendang recipe
Per kilo of beef:
- 2" of galangal grated (this can be optional)
- 1-2" of ginger, grated
- 1/2" of turmeric root, grated
- 2 kemiri (candle nuts)
- About 10 red chillies (add another 10 birds eye chillies for extra heat)
- Half a red onion or 10 red shallots
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 1 or two stalks lemongrass
- Half a dozen kefir lime leaves
- 1/2 nutmeg, grated
- Two tins of coconut milk
- Half a lump of brown coconut sugar (about one tablespoon)
Steps:
- Remove any connective tissue or gristle from the beef and cut into pieces about 2" x 2" x 1" (they need to be big as cooking will shrink them down).
- Peel the garlic, shallots, galangal, ginger and turmeric. Bruise the lemongrass.
- Put the chillies, ginger, garlic, turmeric, kemiri, chillies, shallots, garlic, sugar and nutmeg into a blender and blend until smooth.
- Fry the mixture until aromatic.
- Put the mixture with the coconut milk, lime leaves and lemongrass into a pot/wok and bring to the boil.
- In the meantime, brown the beef (this is a recommendation from the MIL, who is an actual Indonesian chef).
- (Optionally) boil down the coconut milk/spice mix a bit. The process involves slow cooking the meat, and if you are using softer beef like rump, boiling it for too long can make it start to disintegrate. If you're using tougher skirt or stewing steak you can put the beef in right away.
- Add the beef. Simmer until it starts to go dark brown. Stir every 5-10 minutes. You can boil vigourously at first, but as the mixture gets thicker you will need to turn it to a low heat. This process can take 6-8 hours.
- Once the fat starts coming off it, you need to turn it right down and stir every 5-10 minutes until the bumbu is solid enough. It should not be too liquid to stick to the beef. At this point it's done.
It will look like you're putting an ungodly amount of chilli into the mix, but the cooking takes the edge off the heat, leaving a nice slow burn effect. Serve with rice and something green. Cassava is traditional but cucumber or cabbage works well.
Rendang is quite happy to be frozen and reheated as many times as you want. In fact, it gets better with re-heating. If it's properly done it can last a month with no refrigeration (it was originally invented as trail rations), but don't try this at home.