Rendang Padang recipe by Hed Chef
Hedy Khoo | The New paper (Singapore) | Tue May 1 2012
Singapore, April 29, 2012
EATS - HED CHEF
This is THE recipe for rendang padang if you want all the glorious taste without that overly-rich oily feel that makes you weep with guilt after.
Housewife Tumiar Simandijuntak, 78, who is originally from Medan, Sumatra, is health-conscious and cooks with as little oil as possible in her homemade dishes.
She belongs to the Batak ethnic group and she says that Batak cooking uses only small amounts of oil.
Her family moved to Singapore when she was 17 and she has one daughter and three grandsons who are aged 14 to 24.
Her eldest grandson, part-time student Daniel Philip Sitinjak, 24, served as an interpreter for Madam Simandijuntak for this interview as she speaks only Bahasa Indonesia.
Says Mr Sitinjak: "Rendang padang is my grandmother's signature dish and our family’s favourite. She cooks it for us almost every week."
Madam Simandijuntak says in Bahasa Indonesia: "I learned to cook rendang padang by observing my mother and other women in my village. I then tried cooking it until I got it right."
She says the recipe also works well with chicken meat as a substitute for beef.
While most home cooks these days choose store-bought convenience over freshness, Madam Simandijuntak chooses to make her own "instant" pastes.
For a start, she blends lemongrass with shallots, heats the mixture, puts it in a jar and refrigerates it for convenient use.
She does the same for the pairing of garlic with ginger. She grinds fresh chillies, fries the paste until it turns dry, adds some salt, then stores the paste in the fridge. She does the same for dried chillies.
Says Madam Simandijuntak: "This makes it convenient for people who are busy and short on time, but who still want to cook and eat at home."
She is partial to dried chillies as they have a better flavour than fresh chillies.
Watching her inspired me to go through the torturous process of frying grated coconut, then blending it. I still have a jar sitting in my fridge.
Attempting to make rendang padang from start to finish is a day’s work, including shopping for the ingredients and the tedious steps of peeling, chopping, cutting, grinding and frying, not to mention washing up.
If you are not up for making everything from scratch, you can buy ready-made toasted coconut in packets or in a jar.
Look for the word "kerisik", the Malay word for toasted grated coconut.
You can also use the store-bought version. Use about 300ml if you are using the canned product.
Chilli paste is also available in the store, but I’m inclined to believe that the final result won’t taste quite the same.
This recipe is worth all the hard work. Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way out, other than to get someone to cook it for you.
INGREDIENTS
1kg of beef, cut into 4cm-thick slices
10 dried chillies
4 red chillies
10 shallots
5 cloves of garlic
5cm-thick piece of lengkuas (galangal)
5cm-thick piece of old ginger
4 stalks of lemongrass (use only 7cm of the root part)
4-5 kaffir lime leaves
1 daun kunyit (turmeric leaf)
1 tsp ground coriander
2 coconuts (only grated white portions)
2 slices of asam keping (sour fruit)
1 tbsp of tamarind mixed with 2 tbsp of water. Strain and reserve.
250ml of water
2-3 tbsp of cooking oil
METHOD
Soak the dried chillies for 20 minutes or until soft. Rinse chillies and set aside.
Put half of the grated coconut in a muslin cloth and pour in the 250ml of water. Squeeze to extract the coconut milk. Refrigerate.
Heat the wok or a non-stick frying pan. Fry the remaining grated coconut over low heat, stirring constantly to prevent it from burning. Do not use oil. It should take around 30 minutes to get the grated coconut to brown.
Allow to cool, then blend till fine. Set aside 3 tbsp for use later. Store the remainder in a glass jar and refrigerate.
Grind the dried chillies, red chillies, shallots, garlic, lengkuas, old ginger and lemongrass together to make the rempah (spice paste). Use a little water to help the process if you are using a blender.
Heat 2-3 tbsp of oil in a pot over a small fire. Add the rempah and fry until it browns and give off a strong aroma.
Add the daun kunyit and lime leaves. Add the beef and fry until the beef is coated with the rempah.
Add the coconut milk and 1 tsp of salt or more to suit your own taste, and the ground coriander.
Next, add the asam keping and tamarind juice. Cover and allow to simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, for two hours until the beef is tender.
Add in 3 tbsp of the toasted grated coconut and stir thoroughly.
Serve hot with rice.
hedykhoo@sph.com.sg
Read also:
- Three classic Rendang Chicken recipes